Top Homeland Contractors Had Gov't Run-Ins

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - The largest Homeland Security Department contractors include two companies which paid millions to settle charges they defrauded the Pentagon (news - web sites), one firm which paid a foreign corruption fine and a business accused of botching a computer system for veterans hospitals, records show.

About a quarter of the $2.5 billion awarded to the 50 largest Homeland Security contractors came under no-bid contracts, agency records show. That's lower, however, than the 44 percent of Pentagon contracts given under "other than full and open competition."

The rest of the money paid to the top contractors — a bit more than $2 billion — was for contracts awarded through competition, the records show. Some of the nation's largest federal contractors have won the new business of protecting America from terrorists, including many with a recent history of legal run-ins with the government, the records show.

The two companies with the most business — nearly $700 million between them — were Boeing Co. and Integrated Coast Guard Systems, a partnership of defense giants Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

Those companies have paid more than $250 million in the past three years to settle charges of improprieties with their Pentagon contracts. Homeland Security audits also have accused the two companies of overcharging, in Boeing's case by $49 million.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=542&ncid=718&e=4&u=/ap/20041231/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/homeland_security_contracts

[ixion]

1. you know, it sucks that they put people in jail for smoking a joint

but these people who steal millions of our tax dollars wind up with a slap on the wrist. :grr:

[The Magistrate]

3. Indeed, Sir

One feature of Communist rule that continues to exert a certain charm for me is that they shoot people dead for things like that....

"Some men rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen."

[BadGimp]

6. amen

:hippie: :smoke:

[Benhurst]

2. I'm just so shocked I don't know what to do.

How could this happen in BushAmerica? The Leader must appoint a commission to look into this. It will need strong leadership, so I suggest Dick Cheney be named chairman. And Kenny Boy Lay doesn't seem to be busy these days. He would be my first choice for an appointment.

[Carl Brennan]

4. Bush family profits from Homeland Security Patriot Act

Bush family profits from Homeland Security Patriot Act:
<http://www.bushnews.com/burns.htm>
Published on Wednesday, November 27, 2002 by the Prince George's Journal
(Maryland)
Bush Family Dipping Into Security Pie
by Margie Burns
The full effects of the 2001 so-called "USA Patriot Act" have not yet been felt, fortunately. But one of its first effects has been to
benefit the president's brother, Marvin.

Marvin P. Bush, one of George W. Bush's three younger brothers, is
co-founder and partner in Winston Partners, a private investment firm
in Alexandria, Va. Winston Partners in turn is part of a larger
venture capital entity called the Chatterjee Group, headed by venture
capitalist Purnendu Chatterjee. (Venture capital firms provide money
to start-up businesses and other companies, usually in return for
equity and some managerial say in the company.)

Through this and other business relationships, this Bush sibling is
positioned to do very well in high-tech activities as a result of
provisions of the

Profits from the Patriot Act:
Inevitably, many companies are aggressively marketing services to make
businesses "Patriot Act"-compliant: that is, they sell computer
systems to enable banks to argue successfully to Uncle Sam that
they're not laundering money for terrorists. One of the most
aggressive is Sybase Inc., which developed a "Sybase PATRIOT
compliance Solution" months ago. Sybase, which said it wanted foreign
banks as customers (it already had a deal with the People's Bank of
China), landed Sumitomo Mitsui Bank in time for the October 2002
compliance deadline.

This is where Winston Partners comes in. The Chatterjee Group,
including Winston Partners, owns 5.5 million shares in Sybase
(Chatterjee businesses also have been paid thousands more shares in
Sybase). SEC filings show that Winston Partners LP owns 1,036,075
shares in Sybase; Winston Partners LDC holds 1,317,825 shares; and
Winston Partners LLC owns 1,221,837 shares. The shares owned by the
subsidiaries are collectively managed in funds for Winston Partners by
Pernendu Chatterjee. There is also a Chatterjee Charitable Foundation.


Business for Sybase is business for Bush, and the Patriot Act boosted
business. Not that the Patriot Act is Sybase's only federal conduit. The companyis also a significant government contractor (especially nowadays),
with contracts from the Agriculture Department, the Navy ($2.9 million
in 2001), the Army ($1.8 million in 2001), the Defense Department
($5.3 million in 2001), Commerce, Treasury and the General Services
Administration among others. The federal procurement database lists
Sybase's total awards for 2001 as $14,754,000.

Sybase is only one of the companies with federal contracts from which
Marvin Bush's firm derives financial benefit. Winston Partners'
portfolio also includes Amsec Corp., which got Navy contracts worth
$37,722,000 in 2001.
The potential for abuse here can hardly be overstated. A branch of the
military or other government agency that risked funding cutbacks, for
example, could throw up a buffer by awarding a contract benefiting the
First Family. Why spend money on a lobbyist in the industry, when you
might have one in the White House?

Now let's step back and look at the big picture. The president's
brother is marketing to offshore customers (shipping out American
jobs, be it noted). He is closely linked to entities marketing
"outsourcing" and "global alternative investments" yet more
aggressively. Companies associated with them are doing other high-end
versions of the same. And some companies in which they have a stake
are involved in the most sensitive technology outside nuclear weapons
- being marketed simultaneously to the U.S. government, to foreign
banks and to the states (Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, New Jersey and New
York also purchase from Sybase). This is "security"?
Nor is Marvin Bush the only family member in this picture. His brother
Jeb Bush, Florida's governor, is also an investor in the Winston
Capital Fund, managed by Marvin Bush's firm. And Indigo Systems Corp.,
another federal contractor ($2,629,000 in 2001 from Defense and NASA),
is substantially backed by The Carlyle Group, the global finance
company. Who's that? Why the President's father, George H.W. Bush, sits on their board.

As we used to say in Texas, son of a gun.
Burns, a writer and teacher, lives in Cheverly, Maryland. . Securities and Exchange Commission
filings show that the Chatterjee Group consists of Winston Partners,
L.P.; and a half-dozen other entities with addresses in the Cayman
Islands, the Netherlands Antilles, the Isle of Man and Delaware.
Bush's partner is Scott Andrews, with whom he went to school. Winston
Partners has two branches, hedge funds and private equity funds,
engaged in a variety of investments, including global "outsourcing"
and offshore information technology.

H.R. 3162, called "The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing
Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act"
(or USA Patriot), was designed to prevent money laundering and
requires banks to "know their customers."

[catzies]

13. Not to threadjack, but brother Neil profits from NCLB,'No Bush Left Behind

Coincidentally one of the smaller beneficiaries of the outsourcing craze is President Bush's brother Neil. Earlier this year, he was charged by some school board members of using his political influence to sell his company's educational materials to the Houston school district. Wells Fargo and other Bush family friends donated $115,000 to the Houston school district's charitable foundation contingent on the purchase of Ignite materials.

http://www.corpwatch.org/print_article.php?&id=11543

No Bush Left Behind: When You're Barred From Banking, Why Not Bank on Education?

After Neil Bush was banned from banking activities for his role in the Savings and Loan scandal in the late 1980s, he decided to bank on education and founded Ignite Incorporated. Ignite sells software to help students prepare to take comprehensive tests required under the No Child Left Behind act that was pushed through by Neil's older brother - President Bush.


http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/12/1534244

[Trillo]

5. Cash-flow dynamics between government and corporate

Pay the bribe, then pay the fine, government will pay you back.

Pay to play.

All of this increases money velocity.

[idiosyncratic]

7. I voted it up. So far it only has 4 votes.

You have given the news article Top Homeland Contractors Had Gov't Run-Ins a rating of 5.

Its current average rating is 4.00 with 4 vote(s).

[yardwork]

8. Bush Family values at work

The yahoo story has six votes now and is at 4.something. Somebody gave it a zero. What are they afraid we'll learn?

[idiosyncratic]

12. It is up a bit more now, but it must be a well-hidden story.

You have given the news article Top Homeland Contractors Had Gov't Run-Ins a rating of 5.

Its current average rating is 4.60 with 10 vote(s).

[Supersedeas]

15. and the MSM is really all over this one...huh?

[The Judged]

9. I guess there are no Rockefeller Laws for robbing one's country?

Otherwise the story would be about the 25 to 30 years they are serving for their white collar crimes!

[salin]

10. wasn't there a Clinton era reg. that prevented companies

who defrauded the govt from securing govt contracts for a period of time?

Oh ya... bushco reversed that right off the bat after taking office.

[bobthedrummer]

11. Campaign Contributions of Post-war Contractors

Compare and contrast. It's sickening:puke:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/resources.aspx?act=contrib

[brentspeak]

14. I guess crime does pay