The Los Angeles Times has a story today examining Rudy Giuliani's questionable business background and political opportunism that is worth a read. Excerpts:
The former New York mayor told reporters that his newest business venture, called Bio-ONE, would swiftly eliminate deadly anthrax from a tabloid newspaper office. The site still stood padlocked, more than 2 1/2 years after the worst biological terrorism attack in U.S. history.
"You will see me walk through those doors," pledged Giuliani, who is now seeking the Republican presidential nomination.
But Giuliani never entered the building.
Health authorities did not lift the quarantine until February 2007 -- long after Bio-ONE had quit the cleanup in a dispute over how to disinfect photos of Bigfoot and other tabloid targets. A rival company was hired to finish the job.
The case marks a little-known setback in Giuliani's high-powered business career. He has earned tens of millions of dollars over the last six years from speeches, investments and business deals. But he also has foundered at times, despite his political firepower.
Giuliani's celebrity as a leader who rallied New York after Sept. 11 has been key to both his past business success and his current political ambitions.
In 2001, his last year in office, Giuliani claimed a net worth of about $1 million. In 2006, according to campaign records he filed last summer, he reported more than $17 million in income and about $50 million in stocks, business interests, real estate and other assets.
He earned $11.4 million that year giving speeches to trade conferences, business associations, schools and other groups. He delivered hundreds of such speeches over the last six years, including at least 30 overseas, charging fees of $100,000 to $300,000 each.
Giuliani also capitalized on his fame by heading Giuliani Partners, a management consulting group he founded with former aides. Based in New York, the boutique firm reportedly has earned more than $100 million with contracts to help clients improve corporate governance, financial planning and crisis management.
Giuliani and his team bought and later sold an investment banking unit that saw a sharp drop in revenue the first year. Another subsidiary, set up to focus on safety and security, lost clients after the director, Bernard B. Kerik, was forced in 2004 to withdraw from consideration as secretary of Homeland Security. Kerik, who served as police commissioner under Giuliani, is awaiting trial on federal charges of fraud and tax evasion.
The Giuliani group's first client, Purdue Pharma, showed the limits of his celebrity.
Purdue Pharma produced OxyContin, the nation's No. 1 prescription painkiller. Abuse of the narcotic analgesic, known on the street as hillbilly heroin, had exploded to nightmare levels. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration director declared that OxyContin had caused or contributed to 465 deaths in two years.
Over the next two years, Giuliani appealed to members of Congress, federal and state prosecutors, and the head of the DEA to keep OxyContin on the market while seeking ways to curb prescription abuse. After the DEA documented theft at Purdue Pharma's manufacturing plants, Giuliani Partners sought to improve security and record-keeping.
But John L. Brownlee, the U.S. attorney in western Virginia, made plans in 2006 to indict Purdue Pharma and three of its top executives -- including Friedman and Udell -- for misleading the public about OxyContin's dangers. Giuliani met or spoke by phone with Brownlee six times to argue for his client, according to the prosecutor's office.
Giuliani managed only to keep company officials out of jail. In a plea agreement in May 2007, Purdue Pharma and the three executives pleaded guilty to misleading doctors and patients. They paid a total of $634.5 million in penalties and fines.
In spring 2005, he joined a politically connected Houston-based law and lobbying firm as senior partner. He opened a New York office for the firm, which changed its name to Bracewell & Giuliani, and began representing clients.
Federal records show the firm is paid to lobby Congress, key regulatory agencies and the departments of Defense, Justice, Energy and State on behalf of defense contractors, oil and gas conglomerates, tobacco companies and other clients. The firm is registered to lobby on nuclear waste disposal, trade policy, stem cell research and other concerns.
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