John Prescott Ellis

Prescott, that name sounds familiar. John Prescott Ellis is the nephew of George H W Bush and the first cousin of George W Bush. In fact, Jeb Bush, George W's brother has a son named John Ellis Bush Jr.

The interesting thing about John Prescott Ellis is his use of his cousin's name to promote investment fraud. We'll remember John from his involvement with Fox News on the Election 2000 media coverage.

Yet the voter fraud in Florida is an important but separate issue. What I want to examine is Ellis' documented connection to investment fraud and how he used his position with the Bush Administration to endorse that fraud.

Let's look at this court decision involving Robert Nichols and John Ellis. The Bayou entities were various names for an investment fraud. In spring of 2004, after the scam started to unravel, Samuel Israel transferred $120 million to his own account then gave $10 million to Robert Nichols.

On or about April 2004, virtually all of the contents of the Bayou Hedge Funds' brokerage accounts were wired into a bank account entitled "Bayou Management LLC Special Account."

On or about July 8 2004, Samuel Israel caused $120 million to be transferred from Bayou Management to a bank account in Israel's name at the Deutsche Postbank in Hamburg, Germany. ("The Fraudulent Transfer" paragraph 15)

Three days after the Fraudulent transfer, Israel then transferred $10 million to Robert Nichols. (The Recoverable Transfer" paragraph 25)

Robert Nichols counter sued claiming the million dollars seized from a London safety deposit box was part of the $10 million service fee he charged Israel and was his. I kid you not.

Mr. Nichols believes that the services that he provided to Israel  involved matters of national interest. Mr. Nichols was advised by Israel and others that Israel's pursuit of the Project  was known to and sanctioned by the Government.

Confirmation of the government sanction and the general legitimacy of the project was communicated to Mr. Nichols by Mr. John P Ellis, who at the time was involved with GH Venture Partners of New York, New York a company that enjoyed (and enjoys) an honorable reputation.

Mr. Ellis is the first cousin of President George W. Bush and his material involvement with President Bush's 2004 political campaign (particularly in Florida) was reported in the general press. (Paragraphs 19 - 21)

The Street wrote an in depth three page report on the Bayou scam. They claim John P. Ellis, represented several companies in investment presentations to IM Partners, a side venture set up by Samuel Israel and Daniel Marino. Israel and Marino were the management team that ran Bayou and who federal prosecutors allege defrauded investors out of $300 million.

One of the deals arranged by Ellis and GH Ventures was a $10 million investment by IM Partners in Kycos, a defunct off-shore company that specialized in performing corporate background checks and due diligence for online gambling sites.