Posted on 06/12/2009 3:49:04 PM PDT by Libloather
Dodd's wife serves on health care company boards
3 hours ago
By LARRY MARGASAK and SHARON THEIMER
Associated Press Writers
(AP:WASHINGTON) The wife of a senator playing a lead role on a national health care overhaul sits on the boards of four health care companies, one of several examples of lawmakers with ties to the medical industry. Jackie Clegg Dodd, wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, serves on the boards of Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cardiome Pharma Corp., Brookdale Senior Living, and Pear Tree Pharmaceuticals, a financial disclosure report the senator released Friday shows.
**SNIP**
Mrs. Dodd earned $79,063 in fees from Cardiome in its last fiscal year, while Brookdale Senior Living gave her $122,231 in stock awards in 2008, their SEC filings show. She earned no income from her post as a director for Pear Tree Pharmaceuticals but holds up to $15,000 in stock in Pear Tree, which describes itself as a development-stage pharmaceutical company focused on the needs of aging women.
Bryan DeAngelis, Dodd's spokesman, said, "Jackie Clegg Dodd's career is her own; absolutely independent of Senator Dodd, as it was when they married 10 years ago. The Senator has worked to reform our health care system for decades, and nothing about his wife's career is relevant at all to his leadership of that effort."
A complaint filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog group, led the Senate Ethics Committee to begin looking at mortgages that Sens. Dodd and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., received from Countrywide Financial Corp.
The controversy involved a Countrywide "VIP" program for "friends of Angelo," Countrywide's then-chief executive Angelo Mozilo. The SEC filed a lawsuit this month accusing Mozilo of civil fraud and illegal insider trading.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.ino.com ...
Dodd seeks extension on financial disclosure
Associated Press - June 12, 2009 10:23 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) - A senator playing a leading role on an overhaul of national health will have more time to reveal details of any personal financial connections he and his wife have to the medical industry.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, is filling in for ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which will soon start work on a health care bill.
Dodd's previous financial disclosure report showed his wife, Jackie Clegg Dodd, sat on the boards of 3 health-care companies.
Most senators' financial disclosures covering 2008 were filed in May as required and are being released Friday. Dodd sought and was granted a 90-day extension, giving him until mid-August to submit his report.
Gives him plenty of time to shred evidence and bribe insiders who know all the details.
HOW DODD'S DEAL MIGHT HAVE GONE DOWN For nearly a year and a half, Countrywide failed (or declined) to secure its interest in Dodd's home by taking the ordinary and essential step of presenting the documents to the local town clerk and recording them in the land records. The escrow company that handles the transaction always does that once the monies are wired.
JUST WONDERING Why would someone instruct the escrow company not to record the Deed? Actually on a refi, the deed would be in Dodd's name and the recording would be a lien by Country Wide. (A) Was the mortgage non-existent? (B) Were wired monies a payoff "laundered" as a mortgage? (C) Were the monies diverted-----maybe wired to a Conn casino account?
RECAP The escrow company that handles mortgage transactions always records the deed once the monies are wired. Why would someone instruct the escrow company not to record the Deed? Was the mortgage perhaps non-existent? Were wired monies a payoff "laundered" as a mortgage? Wired monies could be a smoking gun. Were the monies diverted-----maybe wired to a Conn casino account?
NEED TO KNOW Dodd (and his wife and family) are probably enrolled in high-roller comp programs at Conn casinos (and/or in other gambling venues). These programs show every nickel high rollers bet---including wins on which high rollers may not have paid taxes.
Casinos are very tightly regulated. They are more than happy to cooperate with authorities---to protect their licenses. Casinos would also have records on the amount of untraceable casino chips Dodd (his wife and his family) received-----maybe gifts from his pal Angelo.
Authorities should also inquire if Dodd wire-transferred--- or if Angelo and other sub-prime lenders--- wire-transferred monies into Dodd's casino account........and if taxes were paid on these monies.
CONTACTS: Connecticut Division of Special Revenue (Gaming Control Board)
WEB SITE http://74.125.95.104/search?q=cache:EPdMRVRy8g8J:www.ct.gov/dosr/
Mailing Addresses:
Division of Special Revenue (casino control)
555 Russell Rd.
Newington 06111-1523
Division of Special Revenue (casino control)
P.O. Box 310424
Newington CT 06131-0424
Another possibility: Dodd, his family, and Angelo, may have used NETeller Plc to illegally convert monies that were then transferred offshore---to overseas gambling companies, for their personal use later. NETeller is an Isle of Man-based payment processor for gambling Web sites (suspected of having operations in the US Virgin Islands---a notorious money-laundering bank haven).
As of April, Dodd has only received a mere $4,250 in donations from actual Connecticut residents, five to be exact.
“But even if the five-term senator doesn’t have too many fans in Connecticut, they love him at Intercontinental Exchange, one of the nation’s leading exchanges trading credit default swaps and other risky financial instruments.
Executives at Intercontinental (known as ICE) donated $18,400 to Dodd’s reelection campaign during the first quarter of this year, according to the senator’s report to the Federal Election Commission this week.”
You may ask why is ICE So Dodd Friendly?
“The company was recently approved by government regulators to begin ‘clearing’ trades of derivatives, the risky financial instruments that helped take down AIG and were estimated last year to exceed the real value of the whole world’s financial holdings. ICE now has an interest in ensuring that derivatives trading remains supervised by a small group of firms, thus maximizing its ability to profit from the market.”
During this year’s first quarter, Dodd received campaign donations totaling $604,745 from nearly 400 individuals not residing in the state of Connecticut.
For example, six employees of Patton Boggs LLP, a Washington, D.C. based lobbying firm and benefactor of Obama’s stimulus plan donated $5,500 to Christopher Dodd’s campaign in one day.
During the first quarter, Dodd also collected $6,900 from employees of the financial services company Chesterfield and $437,407 from political action committees.
“Dodd raised less from Connecticut residents than he did in 18 other states and the District of Columbia, according to campaign finance documents filed Wednesday.
He took in $90,795 from Massachusetts residents, $81,550 from Texas, $56,150 from Maryland, and $53,400 from New York…. …Overall, Dodd’s campaign reported ending the first quarter of 2009 with nearly $1.4 million cash on hand, according to campaign finance documents filed Wednesday.
The $1.4 million gives Dodd a leg up on a growing field of potential Republican challengers who have yet to file financial reports on their campaign fundraising efforts….
Dodd is chairman of the Senate banking committee, and a bill being fought by the industry that would cap the annual interest rate on consumer loans at 36 percent has been referred to the committee.
‘It’s not surprising to me that he would be receiving money from payday lenders and others,’ said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks the influence of money in politics.
There is a concerted effort on the part of the special interests to have a say in what emerges in legislation. … These issues are so controversial and of great interest to Chris Dodd’s constituents and all Americans, particularly in this economic climate.
Dodd’s donors in the payday industry declined to comment. But on its website, the National Pawnbrokers Association – whose members and political action committee gave a total of $10,000 – offered a number of “talking points” to counter its critics.
The association said that pawnbrokers are often the only way that low- and moderate-income people can obtain loans and that, if the bill passed, “the last option available to millions of consumers in the U.S. will be eliminated.”
The National Pawnbrokers Association, which has nearly 2,600 members, is represented by a Washington lobbying firm, whose founding member, Wright Andrews, gave $1,000 to Dodd during the current cycle.
Payday loans are small, short-term loans with annual percentage rates of 400 percent or more. One way they work is for borrowers to write a post-dated check that the lender agrees not to cash until the customer’s payday.”
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