Jeb Bush May Be Forced to Testify in Nigerian Civil Fraud Case

Former Gov. Jeb Bush, who helped found a marketing company called Bush-el, has been named as a potential witness in an upcoming civil trial.

Bush-el briefly did work for a Deerfield Beach company, Moving Water Industries (MWI). The civil trial has to do with commissions MWI paid to Nigerian sales agents, according to multiple documents filed in the case.

Now Bush's company -- and the former Florida governor -- find themselves squarely, uncomfortably in the middle.

Attorneys for the Department of Justice including Stuart Delery, assistant attorney general are arguing that Bush should be called as a witness.

Jeb Bush was named as a witness for trial because his testimony may be needed on the issue of the commission paid or to be paid to Bush-El by MWI, according to a recent filing signed by attorneys for the government.

The facts of the case date back to 1992, during the first George Bush's presidency, when MWI secured loans from Ex-Im Bank for exports of water pumps to the Nigerian government. According to records of the case, MWI paid a Nigerian businessman $28 million as a fee for a series of sales transactions.

The so-called fee amounted to 36.8 percent of the total sales package. MWI doesn't deny it made the payments, but it claims they were properly disclosed on the loan application.

According to the South Florida Business Journal, part of the dispute is about what is a regular payment when doing business in Nigeria.

Steven Purcell, plaintiff in the case, filed a whistleblower lawsuit in 1998. The Business Journal says the government intervened on Purcell's side, because federal money was involved. Purcell listed Bush as a potential witness, and the government followed up in support.

The real purpose of introducing evidence about Bush-el or calling Gov. Bush to testify is to politicize this case and incite the passions and bias of the jury as well as mislead it in rendering its verdict, said a recent MWI motion. There can be little doubt that injecting a well-known political figure into the trial on this matter will create a risk of jury bias, whether stemming from personal politics or the notion that MWI may have used political persuasion in making the sales, which would infect the jury as to the propriety of its disclosures to EX-IM.

Sunshine State News' attempts to contact the former governor were not successful Monday afternoon.

The case is pending in federal district court in Washington, D.C.