Andy Stern Tried to Silence Huffington Post's Article Detailing SEIU's Deal with Billionaire Ron Perelman

Ron Perelman and Andy Stern

In its recent article, the Huffington Post unearthed a previously unknown chapter in Andy Stern’s corporate career at SIGA Technologies, a bio-warfare pharmaceutical company.

It turns out that soon after journalist Ryan Grim published a 2010 article outing Stern for an allegedly corrupt backroom deal with billionaire Ron Perelman (“Andy Stern's Bizarre Alliance With Private Equity and Biowarfare,” October 7, 2010), Stern and SIGA hired a fancy corporate law firm to try to bully the Huffington Post into silence.

In their recent article, Grim and fellow journalist Jeffrey Young describe how SIGA’s lawyers threatened to sue the Huffington Post unless the news outlet deleted Grim’s article discussing Stern's allegedly corrupt deal with Perelman… in which Stern and SEIU abandoned 10,000 security guards who work for AlliedBarton. Just weeks after Stern resigned as SEIU's president, Perelman appointed him to SIGA Technologies board of directors where Stern pocketed tens of thousands of stock options and buckets of cash. 

Below, Tasty has posted a copy of the lawyers' bullyboy letter sent to the Huffington Post… which appears to have been taken from Chapter 1 of a scare-tactic handbook.

Here's how the scare tactic works. 

After a fatcat is stung by the truth, he hires lawyers with super scary-looking letterhead and tells them to send an “I'm going to sue the f*ck out of you” letter to the journalist. The fatcat hopes the journalist will tremble in his boots… and quickly agree to delete the article rather than risk an expensive battle with testosterone-filled attorneys.

In this case, the Huffington Post called Stern on his bluff and forced SEIU’s President Emeritus to slink back to his padded chair in SIGA’s corporate boardroom. Stern’s about-face, of course, had the effect of proving the truthfulness all of the things that Stern and SIGA claimed were untrue. 

 

Arianna Huffington

Check out these excerpts from Stern/SIGA’s “I'm going to sue the f*ck out of you” letter, which was delivered to Arianna Huffington, the Editor-in-Chief of Huffington Post in 2010. "BARDA" is a federal agency that gave a half-billion dollar sole-source contract to Stern's company, SIGA.

For the reasons set forth below, the Companies insist that you withdraw this article from your website and from your archive and that you post in its place a one-line statement that the article was withdrawn because of errors. The Companies further demand that you take all additional steps to have the article removed from computer search engines and deleted by any licensees of The Huffington Post…

First, a major thrust of the article is the implication that SIGA improperly has been using Andy Stern's influence to obtain a BARDA contract and to prevent the funds for that contract from being lost to budget-cutting. That implication is false… [SIGA’s half-billion-dollar federal contract] procurement is not some kind of government boondoggle…

Second, the article falsely implies that Mr. Stern did not have the best interests of SEIU members in mind when negotiating labor agreements with AlliedBarton. And it suggests that Mr. Stern's allegedly improper activities were at the behest of MacAndrews & Forbes, which owned a majority of AlliedBarton at the time, and its senior management, including Ronald Perelman. Those implications are false…

The article should not remain posted on your website, and the Companies hereby demand that you promptly remove it from the site and from archives, and that you take all additional steps to have the article removed from computer search engines and deleted by any licensees. In its place, the Companies hereby demand that you place a single-line note explaining that the article was removed because it contained errors. Thus, people who may try to return to the article will know that it was removed for a reason. If you take these actions promptly, my clients will consider the matter closed, but, if not, they reserve all of their options and remedies. If you do not plan to comply, my clients hereby also demand that you preserve all of Mr. Grim’s and The Huffington Post's documents relating to this story, including all electronic documents, e-mails, voicemails, and similar materials.

Sincerely,

Ronald L. Marmer

  Letter on behalf of SEIU's Andy Stern to the Huffington Post demanding the deletion of an article alle...

 

SEIU’s Andy Stern and Pharma Company Faulted in Ebola Drug Shortage

Why hasn't the U.S. developed a more effective drug to combat Ebola?

According to an article by the Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim and Jeffrey Young, a "politically connected drug company" waged "a high-stakes battle for federal funding" several years ago and snatched up government money that otherwise would have gone to developing an “experimental drug now being used by the U.S. government to treat Ebola patients.”

What's the name of this "politically connected drug company"?

You guessed it. SIGA Technologies.

Here's what happened:

In 2010, the federal government awarded a nearly half-billion-dollar contract to SIGA (which was developing a drug “in case terrorists weaponized smallpox, a disease that was considered fully eradicated by the 1970s”) rather than awarding the money to Chimerix, which was developing "a broad-spectrum antiviral” medicine that the U.S. government is now using on an emergency basis during the Ebola outbreak.

The Chimerix drug “was given in the late stages to Thomas Eric Duncan, the Dallas patient who succumbed to Ebola in early October,” according to the Huffington Post.

The HuffPo article discusses the role of Andy Stern, SEIU’s President Emeritus, and his billionaire benefactor, Ron Perelman, in this tale of money, political deals and a lethal viral epidemic.

The bid for the potentially multi-billion dollar government contract was ultimately won by Siga Technologies Inc. in fall 2010. Just before the contract award, The Huffington Post reported that Siga had brought on board Andy Stern, who had recently departed as head of the Service Employees International Union. Having been the lead labor negotiator on the Affordable Care Act, Stern knew his way around the Department of Health and Human Services, which was to award the contract. Stern and Ron Perelman, whose holding company had a potentially controlling ownership stake in Siga, had long been on friendly terms, having become close after negotiating union contracts when Stern was a labor leader.

After the story, Siga threatened to sue HuffPost for reporting Perelman's ownership, which the company said did not amount to a controlling stake. It was a critical distinction, because Siga had bid for the contract as a small business. Chimerix Inc., the rival bidder, challenged the awarding of a $2.8 billion contract, arguing that Siga was not a small business, as the contract required, because it was controlled by MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, the massive company solely owned by major Democratic donor Perelman.

In November 2010, the Small Business Administration ruled that Siga was in fact controlled by Perelman's company and voided the contract. (Siga did not sue HuffPost and declined to comment for this story; the law firm that wrote the letter threatening the suit is now listed as an unsecured Siga creditor.)…

Instead of reopening the bidding, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, asked Siga simply to submit a sole-source bid -- one that no other company could apply for, arguing that Siga was the only company capable of meeting the criteria.

SEIU's Andy Stern

Of course, SEIU’s Stern has a long and storied connection to Perelman.

When Stern was the President of SEIU, he abandoned thousands of low-waged security guards at AlliedBarton after he allegedly cut a backroom deal with their boss, Ron Perelman, according to an earlier article by Ryan Grim in the Huffington Post. (“Andy Stern’s Bizarre Alliance with Private Equity and Biowarfare,” October 7, 2010)

Then, just weeks after resigning as president of SEIU, Stern was placed on SIGA’s Board of Directors where he apparently was enlisted to use his SEIU rolodex and Washington, DC political connections to "dial for dollars" on behalf of SIGA. 

SIGA’s CEO said the following about Stern in a press release:

Andy is a strong leader and a great addition to our Board of Directors. His insight, experience, and leadership, particularly his understanding of how our federal government works, will complement the skill sets of our existing board members.

SIGA then rewarded Stern with tens of thousands of shares of stock and hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash. SIGA reportedly mounted a full-court press for the half-billion-dollar federal contract, which later prompted investigations into illegal bid rigging by U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

And those aren't the only questionable connections between Stern and his sugar daddy, Perelman. 

SIGA’s majority owner also created and funded a custom-made job for Stern – the Ronald O. Perelman Senior Fellow at Colombia University's Business School in NYC where Stern pulls down a handsome paycheck.

Last month, SIGA filed for bankruptcy after a Delaware court ordered it to pay damages of $232 million for ripping off another company.

Check out the HuffPo story here. 

Does Bankruptcy Signal End of Billionaire's “Bromance” with SEIU's Andy Stern?

Ron Perelman

There's an interesting wrinkle to the Andy Stern/SIGA Technologies bankruptcy.

According to the Wall Street Journal, SIGA filed for bankruptcy because it "doesn't have the money to post the necessary bond for the full amount of the damages, plus interest” …which total $232 million or more.

However, Stern’s billionaire patron -- Ron Perelman -- owns 24% of SIGA and could bail out the company with a single swipe of his ATM card. After all, Perelman is one of the world's richest people and is worth $14.4 billion!

So what's going on?

Tasty realizes that Andy is merely an errand boy for Perelman. But hey, $232 million is just pocket change for cigar-chomping Perelman.

Here's what Bloomberg reports about this made-for-TV drama about the latest chapter of their "bromance:"

The bankruptcy filing also signals that billionaire Ronald Perelman, whose MacAndrews Forbes owns about 24 percent of Siga, won’t bail the company out, Selvaraju said today. “He could have written a check for the bond himself,” the analyst said. Christine Taylor, Perelman’s spokeswoman, declined to comment on whether he considered covering Siga’s bond liability.

Hmmm. Doesn't look good for Andy...

So... has SEIU’s Andy Stern begun delivering dramatic, personal pleas to

SEIU's Andy Stern

Perelman for financial assistance? "Pretty PuhLEASE!!!"

Or is Andy hunkered down in his apartment nervously preparing a series of text messages to Ron design to carefully kiss his ass in preparation for the big ask: “Yo Ron, did I tell u that u r like totally the bomb!”

Has Andy begun performing unsolicited favors like, uh, mowing Ron's lawn, washing his car, “liking” all of Ron’s Facebook posts even if they're totally stupid?

Or more likely... has Andy begun lobbying SEIU’s Mary Kay Henry to sign more back-room with Perelman and his vast array of companies? 

SEIU's Andy Stern Breaks New Ground with Corporate Bankruptcy

SEIU's Andy Stern

Remember when Andy Stern, SEIU’s President Emeritus, pocketed thousands of stock options in a pharmaceutical company after billionaire Ron Perelman appointed him to serve on the company's Board of Directors?

Well… SEIU’s "maverick" leader has accomplished yet another "first" for a "labor leader."

Corporate bankruptcy!

That's right.  Stern’s pharmaceutical company -- SIGA Technologies -- recently filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy.

So how did Stern's corporate wet dream turn into a scene from Enron?

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Delaware's highest court ordered Stern's company -- SIGA Technologies -- to pay damages of $232 million or more for ripping off another company that helped to fund the development of SIGA’s main drug product.

“SIGA says it has grounds to appeal, but doesn't have the money to post the necessary bond for the full amount of the damages, plus interest,” says the WSJ. That's why SIGA is filing for bankruptcy.

 

SIGA's stock price: 99 cents

As these events unfolded, SIGA’s stock price plummeted to just 99 cents a share.

Ain’t karma a bitch!

When Stern was the President of SEIU, he abandoned thousands of low-waged security guards at AlliedBarton after he reportedly cut a backroom deal with their boss, billionaire Ron Perelman, according to the Huffington Post.

Next, only weeks after Stern resigned as SEIU’s president, Perelman returned Andy’s favor by placing Stern on the board of SIGA, where Stern has pocketed bags of cash.

Ron Perelman aka 'Sugar Daddy'

Stern quickly employed the D.C. political connections he acquired during his time atop SEIU to apparently lobby the federal government to award SIGA a massive no-bid, $433 million contract, which prompted investigations into illegal bid rigging by U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

To help out his SEIU buddy, Perelman also created and funded a custom-made job for Stern – the Ronald O. Perelman Senior Fellow at Colombia University's Business School in NYC where Stern pulls down a handsome paycheck.

And now… the bankruptcy.

Like Tasty said… karma is a bitch!

Stay tuned for more...

SEIU’s Andy Stern Joins For-Profit Company to Make Piles of Cash for Big Business

SEIU's Andy Stern

Andy Stern, SEIU’s President Emeritus, has joined the board of yet another for-profit corporation.

Stern, who already serves on the board of SIGA Technologies (a pharmaceutical company controlled by billionaire Ron Perelman), recently joined the Advisory Board of “BeneStream,” a start-up venture headquartered in New York. 

BeneStream pledges to deliver "piles of money" to large corporations by helping them push their low-wage workers onto the taxpayer-funded Medicaid rolls.

What does BeneStream do?

Under Obamacare, large companies will be required to provide health insurance to all of their employees beginning in 2015. That costs money, right? Fortunately for the Bosses, there’s a loophole built into the law. If workers happen to sign up for Medicaid, then companies are no longer on the hook for their health insurance.

That’s where BeneStream comes in. 

Stern's company says it’ll save companies buckets of money for the Bosses by helping them identify low-wage workers on their payrolls and then signing them up for taxpayer-funded Medicaid benefits. Here's an excerpt from BeneStream's website:

And here's what BeneStream’s CEO says on a slick video featured on the company's website:

The one solution that’ll save you a pile of money as an employer is the BeneStream solution… We work with employers that have 50 or more employees to screen their low-income workforce for Medicaid and then enroll those people in Medicaid when we can, saving employers the cost of insurance… The employer wins because they save the cost of insuring someone...

Stern serves on BeneStream’s five-member Advisory Board with people like Kevin Hill, a fatcat insurance exec at companies like Oxford Health, CheckpointHR, HealthPlanOne, and United Healthcare. 

According to a press report, BeneStream recently raised "$1.58 million from angel investors.” 

So how much is SEIU’s President Emeritus pocketing for pimping for BeneStream?

Not clear. But when Stern first joined SIGA’s board in 2012, he took home 35,000 stock options and $116,094 in cash. 

Andy Stern's 'Bromance' with Billionaire Financier Shines Spotlight on SEIU's Backroom Deals with Bosses

SEIU's Andy Stern

Andy Stern is once again shining a spotlight on SEIU's corrupt practice of making backroom deals with corporate executives.
 

Earlier this week, the New York Times published an article about the latest controversy surrounding  Siga Technologies, a pharmaceutical company controlled by billionaire financier Ron Perelman.

Perelman -- a cigar-smoking capitalist who's one of the wealthiest men on earth -- has been Stern's sugar daddy ever since Andy inked a 2006 backroom deal with Perelman that sold out thousands of low-wage security guards in Philadelphia who were employed at one of Perelman's companies, AlliedBarton. The Huffington Post and the Philadelphia CityPaper, among others, have covered that story.

In 2009, Perelman repaid Stern by appointing him to the board of directors of Siga Technologies, just weeks after Stern resigned his position as the President of SEIU. Stern immediately pocketed 35,000 stock options in Siga.

Ron Perelman

Next, Perelman donated a wad of money to Columbia University in New York City in order to create a custom-made job for Stern called the “Ronald O. Perelman Senior Fellow” at Columbia’s business school.

Last week, the New York Times revealed the latest chapter of this tale of corruption. According to the Times, Siga just inked a highly controversial $463 million contract with the federal government. Under the deal, the federal government will pay sky-high prices for Siga's unproven smallpox medicine, and then stockpile the medicine... even though experts cited by the Times say the medicine is unnecessary.

Observers say Stern relied on the personal relationships he developed while president of SEIU in order to help lobby federal officials for the $463 million contract.

Here are some excerpts from the New York Times article, published on March 12.

[T]he purchase has set off a debate about the lucrative contract, with some experts saying the government is buying too much of the drug at too high a price…

The deal will transform the finances of Siga, which is controlled by Ronald O. Perelman, a billionaire financier, philanthropist and takeover specialist.

[T]he government is paying more than $200 for each course of treatment. Siga argues that the price is a fair return on years of investment…

But when stockpiling a smallpox drug was first proposed in 2001 after the Sept. 11 and anthrax attacks, it was expected to cost only $5 to $10 per course, said Dr. Donald A. Henderson, who led a government advisory panel on biodefense in the wake of those attacks…

Dr. Richard H. Ebright, a bioweapons expert at Rutgers University, said there was little need for so much [of Siga’s smallpox medicine.]… “Is it appropriate to stockpile it? Absolutely,” he said. “Is it appropriate to stockpile two million doses? Absolutely not. Twenty thousand seems like the right number.”

…Dr. Henderson and Dr. Philip Russell, who formerly headed the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and served on the advisory panel with him, said they expected the government to pay much less for an antiviral drug since they cost little to make and the alternative, vaccines, cost the government $3 a dose. “If they’re talking $250 a course, they’re a bunch of thieves,” Dr. Russell said

…Dr. Eric A. Rose, the president of Siga and a vice president of Mr. Perelman’s holding company, MacAndrews and Forbes, acknowledged that the drug cost little to make… He said that Mr. Perelman had invested $80 million in the company through years of research with no sales.

The latest chapter of Stern's business 'bromance' with Perelman raises plenty of questions.

First of all, why the f*ck is the President Emeritus of SEIU running around with one of the richest men in the world to lubricate giant business deals with the federal government? Aren't labor leaders supposed to fight for workers, not corporate titans?

Secondly, what were the terms of Stern's secret deal with Perelman in 2006? Stern, who was President of SEIU at the time, yanked SEIU's support from thousands of low-wage security guards who were trying to form a union at Perelman's company. What else did Perelman promise Stern, besides what we already know?

How much money will Stern personally pocket as a result of Siga's $463 million deal with the federal government?

Did Stern use his rolodex of government contacts -- acquired during his tenure as president of SEIU -- to lobby for a $463 million contract for Siga that will personally benefit Stern?

Why has SEIU's Mary Kay Henry failed to take any action against Stern's legal and ethical violations? Is she getting paid off, too?

How many other secret deals have SEIU's officials made with corporate execs to sell out workers in exchange for untold personal benefits?

Olympic-Styled Smackdown Upends SEIU's Andy Stern

Readers may have missed an Olympic event that ended with a withering smackdown of Andy Stern, SEIU's President Emeritus. 

Here's what happened.

It turns out that SEIU’s Andy Stern is pursuing yet another opportunity to undermine workers in exchange for wads of cash from big business. Last month, Stern “joined a gang of incredibly wealthy CEOs” to push a plan that would cut social security and Medicare benefits for the elderly, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

The gang of millionaire CEOs -- operating under the name of “Campaign to Fix the Debt” -- plans to raise more than a quarter-billion dollars from giant corporations and then launch an advertising blitz to convince the U.S. public to accept cuts to their health and retirement benefits. (Sound familiar, SEIU-UHW members?)

SEIU's Andy Stern

Who’s leading the effort? A bunch of gold-plated CEOs from JP Morgan, Caesars, Aetna, Honeywell, R.R. Donnelley & Sons, Invesco, etc… and, of course, SEIU’s Andy Stern. In addition, “The Campaign will work closely with its CEO Fiscal Leadership Council, which is made up of nearly 100 CEOs and business leaders…,” according to the Campaign’s website.

Last month, the Campaign held its official “launch” at a press conference in Washington, D.C.  According to the Washington Post,

Later that evening, at Honeywell’s Washington office, over a salmon dinner with the floodlit Capitol dome as a backdrop, the executives huddled with their political co-conspirators: Simpson and Bowles, Warner and Saxby, and Rep. Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House. Also on board: Simpson-Bowles commissioners Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, and Andy Stern, former president of the Service Employees International Union.

Stern’s “statement of support” for the CEOs’ campaign appears on the Campaign’s website.

Matt Stoller, a political analyst and fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, wrote about the effort and offered this insight about Stern:

Back when he was trying to woo bloggers in the mid-2000s, Stern invited me on a trip around the country to see the union. On that trip, he told me that SEIU was growing so quickly he wished he could cash out and take it public. Since retiring from SEIU, Stern is now on the board of a bio-weapons company and his political connections are what he sells. So he’s one of the links between shutting down liberal opposition to this plan, the White House, and the business community. That level of self-serving cynicism has become the basis of our political system, and it’s an important cultural element in delivering austerity to a public that doesn’t want it.

Apparently, Andy couldn’t “cash out” by converting SEIU into a Fortune 500 company, so he’s now “cashing out” by simply pimping for every giant corporation under the sun.

And just in case Stern’s partnership with the entitlement-slashing gang of CEOs wasn’t bad enough, in late July Stern announced he had joined the Board of Directors of a group that’s working to undercut teachers unions. Here’s just one piece attacking SEIU’s President Emeritus for this move:

But WHY did Andy Stern have to join the Broad Foundation, an organization so antithetical to education workers' interests? He could have turned it down. By signing up he gives the impression that organized labor is fine with collaborating with a foundation that drives the education de-form or stand-on-children abuse of school policy, teachers and children…

But why couldn't Stern practice some labor solidarity and keep more than a 10 foot pole's distance from the noxious company of the Broad Foundation?

As readers can imagine, Stern’s recent actions have garnered substantial journalistic interest, including a piece published by “In These Times.” It begins this way:

Former Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern has long faced criticism from dissidents within his own union that he sold out workers in order to accommodate corporate America. His critics say they have been proven right by Stern's career moves since he left SEIU in 2010. In particular, they point to Stern taking two positions associated with a private equity titan as well as joining the board of an organization that is alleged to have trained school superintendents to combat teachers' unions. 

Ron Perelman

The article goes on to describe Stern’s revolving-door relationship with one of the world’s richest men, Ron Perelman. As president of SEIU, Stern negotiated a sweetheart deal with Perelman that sold out 10,000 low-wage security guards employed by Perelman. Weeks after Stern retired from SEIU, Perelman placed Stern on the board of directors of one of his companies (SIGA Technologies), where Stern pocketed 35,000 stock options.

What’s Stern’s current job? He’s the “Ronald O. Perelman Senior Fellow” at Columbia University’s business school, courtesy of his billionaire patron!

And now… our Olympic moment!

As Andy dined on salmon in Honeywell’s corporate offices and gazed admiringly at his three-piece suit and shiny gold watch, a truth-telling labor leader fired a shot that hit Stern precisely in the solar plexus. Here’s the game-winning blow as published by “In These Times:”

“I think it’s again the latest indication that [Stern’s] true interest is in being a junior member of the corporate ruling class,” says John Borsos, secretary-treasurer of the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), which split off from SEIU over deals Stern cut with hospitals that its members considered to be too generous to employers. “I think he always had that propensity. He always wanted to be a mover and shaker in corporate America, which is why he was such an accommodationist. Now he is showing what his true intentions were. He ran the union to accommodate corporate America and now he is cashing in.”

The article concludes with this final quote from Borsos, which sent Stern sprawling to the mat… and Borsos to the medal stand:

“I am not sure anyone trusts the Ron Perelman Professor of Business to advocate the union agenda. I wouldn't even call him a labor leader at this point because no one views him as a labor leader except big business.”

Andy Stern’s Sugar Daddy

SEIU’s President Emeritus Andy Stern -- who’s always fancied himself as a “maverick” -- has apparently 'broken new ground' by becoming the only “labor leader” in history to be sponsored and funded by a billionaire industrialist.

Readers may remember that just weeks after Stern resigned as President of SEIU, he was appointed to the board of directors of a pharmaceutical company (SIGA Technologies) that’s owned by billionaire Ron Perelman. In his first six months on the board, Stern pocketed 35,000 stock options and $116,094 in cash for attending board meetings.

Then, last month, Stern’s billionaire benefactor poured another giant spoonful of gravy onto Stern’s gravy train. Perelman donated a wad of money to Columbia University in New York City in order to create a custom-made job for Andy!  Here’s how Columbia University describes the newly established “Ronald O. Perelman Senior Fellowship” at its business school:

And here's Andy's page in the Biz School directory, complete with Mr. Sugar Daddy's name:

 

So who’s Perelman? 

He’s the 64th richest person in the world. Perelman, who's a corporate raider and buy-out specialist, has amassed $12 billion in personal wealth by buying and flipping companies -- and their workers -- for a profit. He’s been married five times, owns two personal jets and a 188-foot yacht, and uses a Sikorsky S-76C helicopter to commute from his lavish compound in Manhattan to his 57-acre weekend getaway in the East Hamptons. Oh, and don’t forget about the $13 million estate in the Bahamas, which is located on a part of an island called “The Billionaire Boys Club.”

So how did Perelman become Andy’s Sugar Daddy? After all... everyone knows that a Sugar Daddy doesn’t hand out his sugar for free.   

Well, back in 2006, SEIU President Andy Stern apparently cut a backroom deal with Perelman that allowed Perelman’s security company -- AlliedBarton -- to escape an SEIU organizing drive that was underway among 10,000 of Perelman’s low-wage workers in Philadelphia. According to reports like this and this, Stern simply pulled the plug on SEIU’s organizing efforts after meeting with Perelman.

And presumably, SEIU’s President Emeritus continues to “protect” Perelman’s companies from SEIU organizing drives in exchange for Perelman's generous support of cold, hard cash.

Andy, of course, has been working extra hard to please his patron. No doubt that Perelman was super happy when Andy began jumping in front of TV cameras with Fortune 500 CEOs to publicly pimp for giant tax breaks for U.S. billionaires -- as he did here and here.

All and all, it’s quite a disgusting story. Corruption. Deceit. Backroom deals. Front-page payouts. A so-called "leader" of America's working class who's sucking off the teat of one of the richest people in the world.

Andy Stern on Hot Seat over SIGA Bid-Rigging

SEIU President Emeritus Andy Stern is in more hot water over allegations that he helped rig a $432 million, no-bid government contract for his company, SIGA Technologies. Check out CNN's special investigation -- entitled "Sweetheart Deal with Your Money?" -- that aired on Anderson Cooper 360^◦ in recent days. 

The report highlights Stern's role in the deepening scandal... and even features a picture of Stern flashing his famous purple scarf. Here are some of the questions posed by CNN's Anderson Cooper:

Why would a guy like Andy Stern, who has all these political connections, why would he be on the board of this thing? Why would you bring in someone like that unless it was to get influence with the White House?

And why is it that the company with deep ties to the White House -- the company that just got a big contract for a drug that’s not been proven yet -- why is it going to make an 85% profit on its government contract?

And that's just the beginning! Here's the full video

And a second CNN segment features Anderson Cooper's interview with one of SIGA's board members about the SIGA scandal.

So what did Stern get from the dirty deal? Well, the report hints at Andy's likely payoff when it reports that SIGA's top two executives each got bonuses of up to a quarter-million dollars for landing the giant government contract.

How much did SEIU's President Emeritus pocket from the deal? It's not clear, although there's still a chance the entire scheme will come crashing down under the weight of multiple government investigations into Andy's back-room deal. Stay tuned!

Turkey Day for Andy Stern and SIGA Technologies

It looks like Andy Stern’s get-rich-quick scheme in the bio-warfare industry has hit a bit of a snag. Last week, the chairwoman of a U.S. Senate subcommittee asked the Inspector General to investigate a $433-million, no-bid contract awarded to Andy’s company, SIGA Technologies. 

The request from the Democratic senator was first reported in the Los Angeles Times. Here’s an excerpt from an ABC News article:

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., says the five-year contract from the Department of Health and Human Services to Siga Technologies –  a New York company run by a major Democratic donor — raises questions about a conflict of interest and the potential waste of precious taxpayer funds.

In a letter to HHS inspector general Daniel Levinson on Monday, McCaskill expressed worry over the hefty price of the drug (reportedly $255 per dose) because the company had not been not forced to compete for the contract. She also noted that the drug itself, known as ST-246, may not be effective since it has a short shelf-life and hasn’t been tested on humans.

What’s Andy Stern’s role in this unfolding scandal? Well, as Tasty reported in earlier posts, Stern was apparently appointed to the company’s board of directors so he could use his SEIU rolodex to “dial for dollars”… or in this case, a $433 million government contract.

So, as Andy sorts through the last of his Thanksgiving leftovers, Tasty is hoping he’ll soon find a shiny government subpoena in his mailbox! If so, here are a few questions that investigators might wanna ask:

• Did Andy use his position as “SEIU President Emeritus” to gain access to top government decision-makers in order to help SIGA win the massive no-bid contract?

• Did Ron Perelman, the main owner of SIGA Technologies, put Andy on SIGA’s board of directors (and give him 35,000 stock options) as payback for an earlier deal between the two men… when Stern reportedly sold out thousands of security guards employed by AlliedBarton, another company owned by Perelman?

• How much money does King Andy stand to make as a result of SIGA’s $433 million contract?
  

Stay tuned!

SEIU’s Andy Stern Hit with Latest SIGA Influence-Peddling Scandal

SEIU’s President Emeritus Andy Stern is back in the news -- this time in a lengthy investigative report in today’s Los Angeles Times.

What’s the latest scandal?  It’s new revelations about the influence-peddling that Stern and SIGA Technologies used to rig a $433 million no-bid contract from the federal government.  

Here’s the scoop: Soon after King Andy resigned as SEIU’s “President,” he jumped onto the board of directors of a pharmaceutical company called “SIGA Technologies.” During his first six months on the board, Stern pocketed 35,000 stock options and took home $116,094 in cash, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Why did SIGA want Stern on its board? Simple… because of all the personal relationships that Stern developed with top government officials while Stern was on SEIU’s payroll. SIGA, after all, was trying to win giant contract from federal officials. And Stern was happy as a pig in slop to convert his SEIU rolodex into wads of cash that he stuffed into his pockets.

So what are the latest revelations? The LA Times obtained a whole stack of internal emails, memos and records from the federal agency that gave SIGA the $433 million, no-bid contract. Here’s some of what they found:

“Cost, need questioned in $433-million smallpox drug deal.  A company controlled by a longtime political donor gets a no-bid contract to supply an experimental remedy for a threat that may not exist.”

One scientist who “battled smallpox outbreaks in Pakistan and has advised the Food and Drug Administration on the virus… called the plan to stockpile Siga's drug ‘a waste of time and a waste of money.’”

“In an internal memo in March, Dr. Richard J. Hatchett, chief medical officer for HHS' biodefense preparedness unit, said Siga's projected profit at that point was 180%, which he called ‘outrageous.’”

“In June 2010, Siga further heightened its presence in Washington by naming to its board Andrew Stern, former head of the Service Employees International Union and a frequent visitor to the Obama White House. The union is a wellspring of campaign money and volunteers for Democratic candidates.”

After a government negotiator fought SIGA’s demand for astronomical profits, SIGA used its political influence to replace the government’s negotiator with someone who would be more cooperative. A top government official then wrote a letter to SIGA’s CEO that said: "I trust this will be satisfactory to you."

There’s more… but you gotta read the article.

And that’s not all… There’s another layer of SEIU corruption that’s not even mentioned in the LA Times. It has to do with Andy Stern’s cozy relationship with Ron Perelman, a billionaire who’s one of the world’s richest people.

Perelman owns a controlling share of SIGA, as well as AlliedBarton, a giant security guard company. Observers speculate that Stern’s high-paid gig on SIGA’s board may be payback from an earlier deal between these two fat cats. In 2006, Stern agreed that SEIU would not organize 10,000 of AlliedBarton’s security guards in Philadelphia as part of an apparent sweetheart deal with Perelman… even though SEIU had been working with the low-paid guards for years to win a union.

It’s kinda like: ‘Hey, if you take a dive on these workers, the Big Boss will make sure to take care of you.’ There’s more info about this episode in an earlier post and an article by Ryan Grim, entitled “Andy Stern’s Bizarre Alliance with Private Equity and Biowarfare.”

Stay tuned for SEIU’s next corruption scandal!