Investor Document Says Payne Was Key Bush Campaign OperativeWe’ve gotten a hold of a new document from Worldwide Strategic Energy, one of the numerous firms run by Stephen Payne.
We’ve been writing a lot about Payne since he was caught on video offering to arrange meetings with high-level Bush administration officials conditioned on big donations to the future George W. Bush Presidential Library fund.
This 44-page document, which was previously obtained by the Times of London and the blog Majikthise, was distributed to investors about two years ago and outlines the people involved with Worldwide Strategic Energy and how they planned to make money.
Payne is listed as the president and chief executive officer and touts some connections to the Bush administration that we hadn’t heard before.
Spending hundreds of days on the road for the Bush/Cheney Campaign in 2000 and 2004, Mr. Payne was part of a small team of five Bush operatives, including former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, who coordinated the campaigns’ efforts for the three Presidential debates held that year.
The document includes a photo, above, showing Payne in traditional Kazakh garb alongside Timur Kulibayev, a billionaire and chairman of the board for KazMunaiGaz, the Kazakh oil and gas company (Kulibayev is also the Kazakh president’s son-in-law), and Togrul Baglrov, executive vice president with the Moscow International Petroleum Club.
This particular document also offers some insight into what Payne and his business partners do. In short, they go into politically unstable countries and forge political deals for leasing the rights to drill for oil or natural gas. Once those deals are secured, they form “joint ventures with developing and drilling companies.”
It’s big money they are looking for:
In order to begin our lease acquisition phase of operations, WSE is seeking an Angel Investor round of funding of between $3,000,000 and $5,000,000.
If successful, investors can expect a massive return for the expected 20-year lifespan of a well, the document says. One example suggests a total of $773 million in total revenue (and that’s calculated with oil at $50 a barrel).
The document is not dated, but appears to be no older than March 2006, based on its sources and references.
There are big players involved, according to this document.
One is a current White House official. Bush appointed Spencer E. Geissinger last year as Deputy Assistant to the President for Advance and Operations. Geissinger also served in a similar White House position under President George H.W. Bush as a Special Assistant to the President for Advance.
For Payne’s firm, Geissinger is listed as an “advisory board member.” A call to Geissinger’s White House office was not immediately returned.
The firm Bracewell and Giulinai, which includes the former New York City mayor and has an office in Kazakhstan, is listed as the “Outside Strategic and Legal Counsel.” A spokeswoman for the international law firm has not responded to our request for further information.
And, in keeping with our reporting from yesterday, the document also lists Sen. John McCain’s top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, among its “executive team.” The McCain camp responded yesterday.
Josh Crescenzi is also reported to have worked with the White House advance team under the current President Bush. For Worldwide Strategic Energy, Crescenzi is listed as a “Vice President, Administration and Controller.” Crescenzi did not return a call for comment.
