Dawn Gets Some Government Gravy, or: Daddy Brings Home the Bacon

The Wall Street Journal (sub req.) reports today about how Dawn Gibbons' firm Politek made money off of a company for which hubby helped get no-bid contracts:

Dawn Gibbons got about $35,000 in consulting fees in 2004 from Sierra Nevada Corp., of Sparks, Nev., the company said. Mr. Gibbons, a five-term Republican who served on the armed services and intelligence committees, sought funding that year for Sierra Nevada for a $4 million contract to develop a helicopter radar-landing system.

The consulting fees paid to Mrs. Gibbons could draw new scrutiny from federal investigators already examining ties between Mr. Gibbons and another Nevada defense contractor, eTreppid Technologies, and Warren Trepp, its majority owner. Mr. Trepp, a big campaign contributor to Mr. Gibbons, is former chief trader for collapsed junk-bond dealer Drexel Burnham.

WSJ also reports that subpoenas are out in the FBI investigation of Gibbons' shady pay-for-cruising dealings with possible buddy Warren Trepp.

Sierra Nevada execs and one of those high-priced lawyers Gibbons is somehow paying for (hey, no more slush fund!), sprang to Dawn's defense:

An executive with Sierra Nevada, Renee Velasco, said the contract with Mrs. Gibbons was for a market survey and demonstration of a hand-held emergency-communications device for sale to casinos and state and local governments; the effort was ended in December 2004. She said the contract didn't present a conflict of interest. "Everything was done by the book," she said.

Abbe David Lowell, a defense attorney recently hired by Gov. and Mrs. Gibbons, said the governor's wife "had a pre-existing relationship" with Sierra Nevada that began long before Mr. Gibbons was elected to Congress and had "no knowledge" of the federal contract. In a statement, Mr. Lowell said Mrs. Gibbons was asked by the company to help launch a pilot project to promote one of its products. Mrs. Gibbons spent "numerous hours setting up meetings, large press conferences and pilot demonstrations, as well as providing advice," according to the statement.

Still, the payments are likely to draw critics in Washington and Carson City, the state capital. "Having a family member on the payroll of a company that benefits from a congressman's actions is a poster-child conflict," said Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington nonprofit that studies special-interest spending. She said that Mr. Gibbons "obviously should have recused himself" from seeking federal appropriations for any of his wife's clients.

One of the military contracts that Sierra Nevada got in 2004 was $2 million for research on a "helicopter autonomous landing system," to help pilots land in "brownouts" of blowing sand, a technology several firms were seeking to develop for the Pentagon. House records indicate that Mr. Gibbons asked for $4 million, and got $2 million in the final bill. In a June 22, 2004, news release, he hailed the project and a separate $3 million for eTreppid as "cutting-edge technology being developed in Nevada to improve our defense systems."

Ooo. Sierra Nevada and eTreppid were also working together. All one great big pay-for-play gang bang:

Sierra Nevada and eTreppid also got classified contracts that aren't individually listed in congressional spending legislation. Internal documents and emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show business ties between the two companies between 2003 and 2005, including a subcontracting relationship on some of the classified work; its details aren't disclosed in the documents.

WSJ reminds us as well that the biggest clients for Politek were Gibbons' campaign for Governor and the Education First initiative, which we all know was just part of the Gibbons campaign for Governor. Funneling campaign funds to a relative is just another layer of slime on the Gibbons' cesspool.

Here's the Wall Street Journal story: I'll take it down if WSJ complains:

Nevada Company's Capitol Ties

Defense Contractor Paid
Gov. Gibbons's Wife
For Consulting Work

By JOHN R. WILKE
March 30, 2007; Page A4

The wife of Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons was hired as a consultant to a defense contractor at the same time that her husband, who was then a member of Congress, helped the company get funding for a no-bid federal contract.

Dawn Gibbons got about $35,000 in consulting fees in 2004 from Sierra Nevada Corp., of Sparks, Nev., the company said. Mr. Gibbons, a five-term Republican who served on the armed services and intelligence committees, sought funding that year for Sierra Nevada for a $4 million contract to develop a helicopter radar-landing system.

The consulting fees paid to Mrs. Gibbons could draw new scrutiny from federal investigators already examining ties between Mr. Gibbons and another Nevada defense contractor, eTreppid Technologies, and Warren Trepp, its majority owner. Mr. Trepp, a big campaign contributor to Mr. Gibbons, is former chief trader for collapsed junk-bond dealer Drexel Burnham.

A federal grand jury in Washington has begun to issue subpoenas for documents, according to witnesses contacted in recent weeks. The case arose after a former business partner sued Mr. Trepp over the ownership of valuable software algorithms; he also alleged that the congressman helped eTreppid win secret defense contracts and that Mr. Trepp gave Mr. Gibbons gifts including private jet flights, a Caribbean cruise and casino chips, in addition to $90,000 in campaign contributions through firms he controls.

Mr. Gibbons and Mr. Trepp have denied the claims or have said that the gifts weren't improper because of their long personal friendship. Mr. Gibbons has said that he will cooperate with any inquiry.

A spokeswoman for the governor said that his work in Congress to help Sierra Nevada and eTreppid was part of a broader effort to back Nevada companies that were contributing to national defense. She said these efforts had the support of other members of the Nevada congressional delegation, including Sen. Harry Reid, a Democrat who is now Senate Majority Leader.

"The funding requests for Sierra Nevada were in no way connected to the first lady's small contract with them," said Melissa Subbotin, the governor's spokeswoman.

An executive with Sierra Nevada, Renee Velasco, said the contract with Mrs. Gibbons was for a market survey and demonstration of a hand-held emergency-communications device for sale to casinos and state and local governments; the effort was ended in December 2004. She said the contract didn't present a conflict of interest. "Everything was done by the book," she said.

Abbe David Lowell, a defense attorney recently hired by Gov. and Mrs. Gibbons, said the governor's wife "had a pre-existing relationship" with Sierra Nevada that began long before Mr. Gibbons was elected to Congress and had "no knowledge" of the federal contract. In a statement, Mr. Lowell said Mrs. Gibbons was asked by the company to help launch a pilot project to promote one of its products. Mrs. Gibbons spent "numerous hours setting up meetings, large press conferences and pilot demonstrations, as well as providing advice," according to the statement.

Still, the payments are likely to draw critics in Washington and Carson City, the state capital. "Having a family member on the payroll of a company that benefits from a congressman's actions is a poster-child conflict," said Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington nonprofit that studies special-interest spending. She said that Mr. Gibbons "obviously should have recused himself" from seeking federal appropriations for any of his wife's clients.

One of the military contracts that Sierra Nevada got in 2004 was $2 million for research on a "helicopter autonomous landing system," to help pilots land in "brownouts" of blowing sand, a technology several firms were seeking to develop for the Pentagon. House records indicate that Mr. Gibbons asked for $4 million, and got $2 million in the final bill. In a June 22, 2004, news release, he hailed the project and a separate $3 million for eTreppid as "cutting-edge technology being developed in Nevada to improve our defense systems."

In the next fiscal year, the helicopter program gained the support of Sen. Reid as well, and funding rose to $7 million, House records show. Sierra Nevada also was a contributor to Sen. Reid. In a statement, a spokesman for Mr. Reid said that Sierra Nevada is a large employer in his state and he is "proud to have supported" its work.

Sierra Nevada and eTreppid also got classified contracts that aren't individually listed in congressional spending legislation. Internal documents and emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show business ties between the two companies between 2003 and 2005, including a subcontracting relationship on some of the classified work; its details aren't disclosed in the documents.

The 2004 payments by Sierra Nevada to Mrs. Gibbons, a former Nevada state legislator, were made through Politek Inc., a political and public-relations consulting firm she created in 2003 after her last session in the state assembly. "Someone has to make some money in this family," she said in a newspaper interview at the time. Her husband's take-home House salary was only $7,400 a month, she said.

Politek's biggest client: her husband's 2004 congressional campaign, which paid Politek $93,424. A second client, Education First, a nonprofit group set up by Mr. and Mrs. Gibbons, paid Politek an additional $18,000. In the Sierra Nevada contract, Mrs. Gibbons received payments of $2,500 a month between November 2003 and December 2004.

The appearance of a second Nevada contractor, Sierra Nevada, with ties to Mr. Gibbons marks a turn in a case that has drawn national attention because some contracts at issue were part of the classified "black budget," which faces little scrutiny.

The case also had a cameo role in the controversy over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys late last year, including Daniel Bogden, the U.S. attorney in Nevada.

Some Democrats have charged that Mr. Bogden may have been fired for investigating Mr. Gibbons. However, Mr. Bogden wasn't involved in the Gibbons probe, which was initiated by prosecutors in Washington, according to witnesses contacted by the government in the course of the investigation. Mr. Bogden's office was investigating Mr. Trepp's claim of trade-secret theft against Mr. Trepp's former business partner, software designer Dennis Montgomery, who first raised corruption allegations against Mr. Gibbons.

A federal judge in Reno ruled earlier this month the investigation of Mr. Montgomery, overseen by Mr. Bogden, amounted to improper use of criminal authority in a civil business dispute. He also unsealed an earlier ruling which found that U.S. officials in Nevada had acted "with callous disregard for Mr. Montgomery's constitutional rights" and that an FBI agent was an "unwitting pawn" of Mr. Trepp and an Air Force official who urged the FBI to raid Mr. Montgomery's home.

Comments

[texex]

Just what does it take to get an independent prosecutor to look into this case?

Ooops! Forgot. No Justice Dept any more.

[texex]

Wonder if Romney would consider Gibbons as his running mate when he gats the nomination?

[What?!]

Sierra Nevada Corp, acquired Turtle Communications in December 2003. Turtle was owned by the same family as SNC.

In 2004, SNC was a $200m+ (revenue) company doing business with all branches of the DOD and other government agencies.

Go their website and enjoy.

[Sam Dehne]

Does this mean that Dawn could be joining her husband who will soon be joining Duke Cunningham in that Federal place with barbed wire around it?

Excerpt from http://governing.typepad.com/13thfloor/2007/03/the_most_intrig.html#comment-64902814
"The allegations against Gibbons may sound familiar to you and they certainly sound familiar to former Congressman Duke Cunningham. Cunningham is serving 100 months in prison for doing something quite similar to what Gibbons is accused of doing: accepting gifts in exchange for helping the gift-giver, Warren Trepp, secure no-bid government contracts."
And now maybe it could be the Gibbonses [plural). 2 peas in a pod.

Duke Cunningham (Wikipedia):
"Randall Harold "Duke" Cunningham was a member of the United States House of Representatives from California's 50th Congressional District from 1991 to 2005. Cunningham resigned from the House on November 28, 2005 after pleading guilty to accepting at least $2.4 million in bribes and underreporting his income for 2004. He pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion. On March 3, 2006, he received a sentence of eight years and four months in prison and an order to pay $1.8 million in restitution."

These critters are getting deeper and deeper into the Kimshee. They should be ordered out of the (Nevada Citizens') governator's mansion and remloved from duty until this mess is cleaned up. People with sordid backgrounds like this should not be allowed to control Nevadans' lives and fortunes.

[darkhorse]

Why is it that he is never available for comment? Have the phones at the Mansion been turned off or is this just a Governor that has already left the State high and dry. Will Dawn get to bring her dress to the Pen or are Orange jump suits the newest fashion trend? 606 Mountain St., may have a new resident sooner than we thought.

[Sam Dehne]

Pictures from the first Protest against Gibbons from Carson City Yesterday.

Protestor in picture: Patriot Guy Felton
Photos courtesy of: Gala Productions, Carson City, Nevada
"Goodbye Mr Gibbons" and Dawn:
http://www.renocitizen.com/gibbonsresign.htm

[texex]

darkhorse, he's already said he's innocent. Isn't that good enough?

Sam, Wish somebody would give a shoutout about any more protest marches. I could use the exercise. Do we bring new ropes or old ones?

[What?!]

Atop the $43,700 in federal campaign contribution from Sierra Nevada/owners, add another $10,000 in campaign contributions to Dawn's Assembly over the years (the details of the 1991 season, where she raised $134,000, is not available on-line).
$1,000 1999
$4,000 2000
$5,000 2002.

[What?!]

Scandalmonger...go read your own post on November 22, 2006 @ 3:01. Ding Dong, its the indictment of fired US Attorney Carol Lam who indicted CIA bigshot Dusty Foggo on the last day on her job.

Rmember Brant '9 fingers' Bassett who is alleged to have been on Gibbons staff and supposedly recommnded Foggo to CIA Chief Goss?

[NVMojo]

Very interesting! I heard the day to start impeachment is June 2 and many in the capitol are counting down. Funny how no one will admit to voting for the asshat.

[NVMojo]

http://www.elkodaily.com/articles/2007/03/30/video/video1.txt

Gibbons talks to his Faithful in Elko:

“Do not be dissuaded by what you read from the media,” Gibbons said. “Lots of people are still not over the election and they're trying to distract me.” Gibbons reminded the audience he has been through two wars — as a fighter pilot in Vietnam and the first Gulf War. “I've been shot at by real bullets … enough is enough.”

The governor indicated he wouldn't be controlled, and that “upsets” some people, and reiterated his position the FBI inquiry is much ado about nothing.