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 Mohammed bin 'Awad bin Laden ( ar, سالم بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن) (4 January 1946 – 29 May 1988) was a Saudi Arabian investor and businessman. Life Considered the eldest son of Mohammed bin Laden, he was the found ...

and

Khalid bin Mahfouz Khalid bin Mahfouz ( ar, خالد بن محفوظ; 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 Ma ...

Biography

Bath was born in 1936 in

Natchitoches, Louisiana Natchitoches ( ; french: link=no, Les Natchitoches) is a small city and the parish seat of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, United States. Established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis as part of French Louisiana, the community was name ...

. 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 Awad bin Laden, Mohammed bin Laden, founder of the Saudi Binladin Group, 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 (Saudi Arabia), National Commercial Bank, now the largest bank in Saudi Arabia, and for a time represented him as well.

Bath and George W. Bush

Bath was also an acquaintance of former president George W. Bush, whom he met when both men were serving in the Texas Air National Guard 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 that the investment in fact came from bin Mahfouz and bin Laden, and amounted to over a million dollars. Both Bush and Bath have denied this, and according to journalist Craig Unger, who examined the relationship between the Bushes and Saudi financiers in his 2004 book ''House of Bush, House of Saud'', there is no evidence to support it.Unger, 101

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