http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/15/AR2010041503600.html?hpid%3Dmoreheadlines<snip>
Last fall, the blue-chip law firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips signed a $400,000 contract to lobby on behalf of the government of Jamaica, spending the next several months talking with White House and other administration officials about why the United States should not extradite an accused Kingston drug kingpin.
But the unusual arrangement has fallen apart amid a flurry of charges and countercharges that have reverberated from Kingston to Washington. The government of Jamaica contends that it never hired Manatt; the attorney who arranged the deal says it was all a big misunderstanding; and opposition leaders allege that Jamaica's prime minister was doing the bidding of a fugitive the United States wants to arrest.
Above it all hangs a question: If the government of Jamaica didn't pay Manatt, who did?
The controversy has rocked Jamaican politics and has further strained the Caribbean nation's relations with the Obama administration, which has grown increasingly frustrated in its attempts to bring the alleged drug dealer, Christopher "Dudus" Coke, to New York for trial. The country's prime minister, Bruce Golding, has led efforts to resist Coke's extradition, arguing that the efforts to bring him to this country are based on illegal drug and gun charges.
Administration officials said they had no reason to believe that Manatt was representing anyone other than the Jamaican government. The Manatt firm, which is headquartered in Los Angeles, declined to comment, citing client confidentiality.