DoJ drops investigation of Richardson

The muni-bond scandal goes from Florida, to Alabama, to New Jersey, to New Mexico and other states across the country. The heart of it was the black box deals put together by AIG, Banks, CDR Financial Products, and elected democrats. By the way the Collapse of Jefferson County Alabama and the trial of Mayor Langford is just one other part of this scandal.

rob verdi on August 27, 2009 at 11:32 AM

CDR and the Democrats

The withdrawal of Bill Richardson recently made the headlines. In his case CDR gave money to Si SE Puede, a PAC formed to help pay Richardson’s expenses at the 2004 Democratic Convention. In exchange its argued that CDR received favorable treatment in regards to bids to do business for GRIP (Govenor Richardson’s Investment program) , bid rigging in short.

Another aspect of pay for play, and one more likely to land a politician in jail is CDR’s tactic of finding friends, fundraisers and associates of elected Democrats, and hiring them as “Consultants”. In New Mexico it was Richardson friend Mike Stratton who was hired by CDR. On a side note the Director of Si Se Puede Fred Duval was hired by UBS ,a Swiss bank, as a consultant. UBS was also one of several banks that ended up receiving a cut of the GRIP pie. The collusion of CDR, elected Democrat, and consultants that occurred in New Mexico is similar to other CDR linked scandals. In Philadelphia it was Ron White (now deceased) who received money and super bowl tickets from the company and was hired as a consultant. He was also an associate and fundraiser for Philly Mayor Sharpe. In Pennsylvania as a whole it was Alan Kessler who was the chief lobbyist for CDR and a top fundraiser for Ed Rendell. The most egregious example would be Mayor Larry Langford of Birmingham Alabama, who is accused in a 101 count indictment of using his friend William Blount and lobbyist Albert LaPierre to funnel money, jewelry, cloths, and watches into his hands in exchange for government favors while he was President of the Jefferson County Commission. Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham is on the precipice of the greatest municipal bankruptcy in history. There are also questions of CDR’s actions in Atlanta and several of municipalities and CDR is currently being sued by over 20 school districts and cities in addition to the criminal investigations.

Donations to Democrats
Over the past 16 years David Rubin, President of CDR, has managed to funnel 279,000 dollars to various candidates across the country. In total 95% of that money went to Democrats. Of those Democrats, Obama, Clinton, Ken Salazar, and Henry Waxman were some of the top beneficiaries. In addition he has spread 91,000 dollars to Democrats on a state and local level, with Ed Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania being the top recipient. It should be noted that Rubin was on Rendell’s transition team when he became governor a couple years ago. And where was our former Chairmen for House Oversight and Government Reform Henry Waxman when all of this corruption was going on? Broken Promises exposed CDR in 2006 and the SEC had fined that company in 2007, why no headline grabbing hearings for the country to sick its teeth into? Oh wait CDR in addition to being pouring hundreds of thousands to the Democrats happens to be located in CA-30, that would be Waxman’s own district.

rob verdi on August 27, 2009 at 11:42 AM