The White House: My Brother, The Middleman

The yakuza is Japan's version of the Mafia, a shadowy mob brotherhood that often operates behind a shield of what appears to be legitimate business fronts. According to Japanese press reports, one such business is West Tsusho, a Tokyo-based real estate firm that has bought into two American companies with the help of an unusually well-placed U.S. middleman: Prescott Bush Jr., 68, the President's elder brother.

Japanese police have been investigating West Tsusho, which press reports say is an arm of a company controlled by Susumu Ishii, onetime head of Japan's second largest crime syndicate. Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that Bush helped West Tsusho invest heavily in two American firms: Quantum Access, a Houston-based software company, and Asset Management International Financing & Settlement, a New York City-based firm.

In return for his services in the Asset Management deal, Bush reportedly received a finder's fee of $250,000 as well as the promise of $250,000 a year for three years in consulting fees. As West Tsusho's criminal connections only recently came to light, Bush is unlikely to have known he was fronting for the mob.