Jaffe Energy Corp

Raising new questions about House Speaker Jim Wright's finances, the House Ethics Committee said Monday that it is investigating a previously undisclosed oil deal that enabled the Texas Democrat to turn a $210,000 profit on a $58,000 investment. The ethics panel indicated that it wants to determine whether Wright knew about the 1988 deal--his holdings were in a blind trust at the time--and whether the Texas firm involved in the transaction with Wright's business partner, George A. Mallick Jr., had a direct interest in legislation before Congress.

Raising new questions about House Speaker Jim Wright's finances, the House Ethics Committee said Monday that it is investigating a previously undisclosed oil deal that enabled the Texas Democrat to turn a $210,000 profit on a $58,000 investment. The ethics panel indicated that it wants to determine whether Wright knew about the 1988 deal--his holdings were in a blind trust at the time--and whether the Texas firm involved in the transaction with Wright's business partner, George A. Mallick Jr., had a direct interest in legislation before Congress.

Texas businessmen involved in a petroleum deal that produced windfall profits for the blind trust of House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) also have been seeking to share in a $3-billion Air Force development program now being studied by Congress, The Times learned Wednesday. The businessmen's interest in the Air Force program--a massive package of contracts for developing the nation's next jet pilot training aircraft--raises new questions about a matter still under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

The lawyer handling House Speaker Jim Wright's blind trust said Thursday he "cannot imagine" that Wright had advance knowledge of a petroleum deal engineered by two friends that generated a windfall profit for the trust at a time it that faced several pressing debts. Ft. Worth attorney Thomas M. Law said in a telephone interview that he had known little about the 1988 transaction involving a Texas oil and gas well until the House Ethics Committee disclosed Monday that it is the subject of a continuing inquiry into Wright's finances.