James Reynolds Bath (born August 18, 1936) is a Texas businessman who has business interests in aircraft sales and leasing and real estate. He is best known for his business relationships with Saudi businessmen

Salem bin Laden Salem bin Laden () (4 January 1946 – 29 May 1988) was a Saudi Arabian investor and businessman. Life Salem was the eldest son of Muhammad bin Laden, the founder of the Saudi Binladin Group, and a half-brother of the militant jihadist Osama b ...

and

Khalid bin Mahfouz Khalid bin Mahfouz (; December 26, 1949 – August 16, 2009) was a Saudi Arabian billionaire, banker, businessman, investor and former chairman of the National Commercial Bank (NCB). Khalid is the son of Salem Bin Mahfouz, a Saudi entrepreneur ...

Biography

Bath was born in 1936 in

Natchitoches, Louisiana Natchitoches ( ; , ), officially the City of Natchitoches, is a small city in, and the parish seat of, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. At the 2020 United States census, the city's population was ...

. In 1965, he moved to Houston, where he became an aircraft broker. In 1975, Bath met

when bin Laden was interested in purchasing a used aircraft. Salem bin Laden was the son of

Mohammed bin Laden Muhammad bin Awad bin Ladin (; – 3 September 1967) was a Yemeni-born Saudi billionaire business magnate working primarily in the construction industry. He founded what is today the Saudi Binladin Group and became the wealthiest non-royal Saud ...

, founder of the

Saudi Binladin Group Saudi Binladin Group (SBG; ), known as Binladin Group Global Holding Company since 2019, is a multinational construction conglomerate headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. In 2011, the Saudi Binladin Group signed a US$1.23 billion contractual ...

, one of the largest construction companies in the world. Through this acquaintance, Bath eventually became bin Laden's business representative in the United States, representing him in a number of business deals, including real estate, aircraft services, and banking. Through bin Laden, Bath also met Khalid bin Mahfouz, the son of Salem Bin Mahfouz, founder of National Commercial Bank, now the largest bank in Saudi Arabia, and for a time represented him as well.

Bath and George W. Bush

Bath is an acquaintance of former president

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

, whom he met when both men were serving in the

Texas Air National Guard The Texas Air National Guard (TX ANG) is the aerial militia of the U.S. state of Texas. It is a reserve of the United States Air Force and part of the Texas National Guard, alongside the Texas Army National Guard. No element of the Texas Air Nati ...

in the early 1970s. After Bush started his first business, Arbusto Energy, Bath invested $50,000 in the firm. A former business partner of Bath, Charles White, who was involved in a number of suits against Bath, claimed in a 2003 interview with

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...

that the investment in fact came from bin Mahfouz and bin Laden, and amounted to over a million dollars, reiterating allegations that previously appeared in ''The Outlaw Bank'', a 1993 book regarding the

Bank of Credit and Commerce International The Bank of Credit and Commerce International was an international bank founded in 1972 by Agha Hasan Abedi, a Pakistani financier. The bank was registered in Luxembourg with head offices in Karachi and London. A decade after opening, BCCI had ...

(BCCI) authored by ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' journalists S.C. Gwynne and Jonathan Beaty. Both Bush and Bath have denied this, and according to journalist

Craig Unger Craig Unger (b. March 25, 1949) is an American journalist and writer. He has served as deputy editor of ''The New York Observer'' and was editor-in-chief of ''Boston'' magazine. He has written about George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush for ''Th ...

, who examined the relationship between the Bushes and Saudi financiers in his 2004 book ''

House of Bush, House of Saud A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condit ...

'', there is no evidence to support it. Similar conclusions have been reached by journalist

Steve Coll Steve Coll (born October 8, 1958) is an American journalist, academic, and executive. He was dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he also served as the Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism until 2022. A staff w ...

in his 2008 book '' The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bath, James Reynolds 1936 births Living people Businesspeople from Houston People from Natchitoches, Louisiana Businesspeople from Louisiana 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople