SDUT: Former Lewis Aide Paid “Bonus”The San Diego Union-Tribune is out with a long piece on Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) this morning, mostly summing up the many moving parts of this story.
The good stuff comes about halfway through the article, where the SDUT‘s muckraking reporter Jerry Kammer is discussing Letitia White, Lewis’s “gatekeeper,” who hit big as a lobbyist. Shortly after leaving Capitol Hill, she picked up a contract from Trident, a relatively small defense firm.
As Justin first reported here, White and Trident’s CEO bought a townhouse together. And at that address, they ran a political committee, which just happened to have Lewis’s daughter on the payroll.
But that’s not even the sketchiest part. As reported by Harper’s, White had a sort of kickback arrangement with Trident, whereby she pocketed an undisclosed bonus for the earmarks she was able to obtain for them. Now Kammer adds some detail, sourcing the accusation to the company’s former CFO, who was fired along with two others for questioning the deal:
According to Trident’s former chief financial officer, [Trident CEO Nicholas] Karangelen has yet another financial tie with White: He has arranged to pay her a bonus based on the company’s profitability. The former executive spoke on the condition that her name not be used, saying publicity would complicate her job search given the controversy swirling around the company….
…federal contracts helped Trident recover handsomely from a sales slump it suffered in 2002, according to its former chief financial officer.
Trident âhas gone from 11 million (in contracts and sales) in 2002 to 30 million last yearâ the former Trident executive said. Nearly 90 percent of the company’s revenue comes from federal contracts, she said.
The former executive said she and two other company officials were fired after they questioned the company’s financial relationship with Letitia White. The other two, former chief operating officer Gary Grosicki and former corporate attorney Brian Dinning, declined to be interviewed.
