Did Lobbyists Break the Law?

[babylonsister]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0307/3137.html

Did Lobbyists Break the Law?

By: Jeff Patch
March 14, 2007 02:22 PM EST


The city’s biggest Republican lobbying firm, Barbour Griffith & Rogers, is coming under the scrutiny of one of Capitol Hill’s most tenacious Democratic chairmen, California Rep. Henry Waxman, head of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

At issue is whether the lobbying firm broke U.S. laws when its representatives allegedly impersonated a CIA agent to obtain information helpful to a client. The dispute stems from a complicated corporate fight between a Moscow-based firm and a Bermuda hedge fund, named IPOC, over control of a Russian cell phone company. BGR was hired to assist the Moscow entity, Alfa Group Consortium.

Lawyers for IPOC, argue that Barbour, Griffith & Rogers, or BGR, colluded with Diligence, a Washington-based private investigation firm, in a plan to obtain confidential documents and information unearthed during a separate audit of IPOC, according to attorneys who represent IPOC at Winston & Strawn LLP. The improperly collected audit data was used by BGR’s client against IPOC in the battle for control of the Moscow phone company, they claim.

W. Gordon Dobie, a Winston & Strawn partner, received the Waxman letter, which seeks all documents the law firm has related to dispute and a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by IPOC against BGR and Diligence. BGR once held stock in Diligence. It sold its shares, held in a trust, in March 2005, and Ed Rogers, BGR’s chairman, and Robert Blackwill, the president of BGR International, stepped down from Diligence’s advisory board, a company official said. As of Wednesday, though, the two were still listed on Diligence’s web site as board members.

The two supposed Diligence spies, Nick Day, Diligence’s CEO, and Gretchen King, a former intern now a project manager in Diligence’s New York office, allegedly coaxed an employee of KPMG, the accounting firm investigating IPOC, to turn over documents in the investigation.

The probe was nicknamed “Project Yucca” and Day and King targeted KPMG’s Guy Enright, now a London-based accountant. “Liz from Langley,” was the way King allegedly introduced herself to Enright. Ultimately, the pair convinced Enright to divulge private data about IPOC’s financial transactions.

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[stellanoir]

1. "Did lobbyists ever obey the law ?". . .would be more to the point.

Yikes

[kenny blankenship]

3. Lobbyists WRITE the law...how can they break it?

Silly liberals.

[Virginia Dare]

2. Does a bear shit in the woods comes to mind...n/t

[Homer Wells]

4. Why should they be any different?

Everyone in this Administration and their enablers has broken the law. They're just keeping up with the Bushes!

[sam sarrha]

5. isnt they entire Job discription to just hook up elected officials with the bribes..??