Justice Department Awards Ashcroft $52M Contract

[babylonsister]

$52 Million-Plus Payday for Christie's Old Boss
By John P. Martin and Jeff Whelan
The Star-Ledger

Tuesday 20 November 2007

Ashcroft firm to monitor med-implant settlement.

When U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie announced a $311 million settlement to end a probe into kickbacks by leading manufacturers of knee and hip replacements, he touted the agreement as a groundbreaking development for consumers and the industry.

The deal also proved to be lucrative for Christie's old boss.

Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft was one of five private attorneys whom Christie hand-picked to monitor the implant makers. Now Ashcroft's D.C.-based firm is poised to collect more than $52 million in 18 months, among the biggest payouts reported for a federal monitor.

Disclosed in SEC filings, the arrangement calls for Zimmer Holdings of Indiana to pay Ashcroft Group Consulting Services an average monthly fee between $1.5 million and $2.9 million. The figure includes a flat payment of $750,000 to the firm's "senior leadership group," individual legal and consulting services billed at up to $895 an hour, and as much as $250,000 a month for expenses including private airfare, lodging and meals.

A spokesman for Ashcroft said yesterday the former attorney general was "uniquely qualified" for the role as monitor and more than 30 professionals at his firm were working on the matter. The spokesman, Mark Corallo, called the fee structure "consistent with any other large-scale monitoring circumstances," but could not immediately point to similar cases.

Christie said he was not involved in setting Ashcroft's fee, but that no one had objected to the compensation. He said prosecutors did not impose fines on Zimmer and the other implant makers because they knew the companies would be paying substantial monitoring fees.

more...

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112507Y.shtml

[kurth]

1. Cuz "no one had objected to the compensation"

WTF.

[babylonsister]

10. So it's A-OK as long as no one questioned it. Maybe now someone will. nt

[Kahuna]

2. Hush money. nt

[havocmom]

6. BINGO! We have our winnah!

:thubmsup:

[Glimmer of Hope]

23. Oh yeah.

[fightthegoodfightnow]

3. What the F*CK?

Had enough America?

[Selatius]

4. Who said "crime doesn't pay" obviously didn't learn how to subjugate the highest office in the land.

Robbing banks and mugging people is small-fries compared to this racket. If you want to do something illegal but don't want to do the time in prison, then you make it legal.

[Uben]

5. It would have been more if......

.....he'd signed that damned eavesdropping paper in the hospital!

[Kahuna]

18. Yepper!

;)

[Toots]

7. This is what is in store for all of the Bush* Cabal

Not only will they never be held accountable but they will receive untold millions in payoffs...Ain't Amerika great?

[VP505]

8. "uniquely qualified"

A spokesman for Ashcroft said yesterday the former attorney general was "uniquely qualified" for the role as monitor and more than 30 professionals at his firm were working on the matter. The spokesman, Mark Corallo, called the fee structure "consistent with any other large-scale monitoring circumstances," but could not immediately point to similar cases.

DOH, I wonder what that might mean? Na, it couldn't be that, considering all concerned are from the party of higher morals and ethics. The same ones that in 2000 told everyone they would restore "integrity" to the White House. .

[DemoTex]

9. "Let the Eagle, Sore .."

http://www.symbolman.com/corpabuse.html
Oldie But Goodie from DUs own Symbolman.

http://www.unitedstatesgovernment.net/ashcroftinsane.htm
The Mighty Morford on the Insane Ashcroft

[babylonsister]

11. "I Wonder If Somebody Feared Ashcroft Might Pull a McClellan"

Now there's a thought! From here:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/28931

[L. Coyote]

12. That should buy his silence about all the crimes he was priviliged to witness

Like illegal surveillance. Is this a case of "You get off the hook if you pay our bribes for us" ??

[Kurovski]

13. Crime pays.

Just be sure to be religious, college-educated, and Republican.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

19. College educated... top schools like Regent University

:puke: where one can learn the xtian way to crime.

[L. Coyote]

14. K&R. Hey People, let's rec this up!

[babylonsister]

16. I'll kick!

:P

[malaise]

15. That's called

buying silence. :puke: Lock up these criminals.

[spanone]

17. the mob is running our country

a mob of fucking corporatist facist bastards who have dismantled our freedoms and plundered our treasury....

[Rex]

20. And there it is - the payout we were all wondering

about. Here we see Crisco's payoff. Wonder what Rummy's payout is/willbe/was?

[Gman]

21. And Ashcroft his self gets a kickback

[lovuian]

22. But I thought Aschcroft covered Justice up

this is a payoff