The Suspicious Mr. Williams

Posted on | July 28, 2012 | 22 Comments

Quote of the Day:

Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, said, “In more than 15 years of investigating political corruption, I’ve never seen a more suspicious set of facts.”

The circumstances definitely raise questions.

Category: Corruption

Comments

22 Responses to “The Suspicious Mr. Williams”

PaulLemmen
July 28th, 2012 @ 2:32 pm

Heh! Appears to be a member of my old union: The Brotherhood of Liars, Con-Artists and Flim-Flam Men.
JeffS
July 28th, 2012 @ 2:40 pm

If he’s fronting as a minority company for corporations to land government contracts (as implied in the article), that’s a common occurrence. Not illegal, as far as I know.

The rest of it…..yeah, pretty suspicious.
Mike G.
July 28th, 2012 @ 2:43 pm

I wanted to read the article before I said anything, but I’m in agreement with you, Paul.
McGehee
July 28th, 2012 @ 3:23 pm

If he’s fronting as a minority company for corporations to land
government contracts (as implied in the article), that’s a common
occurrence. Not illegal, as far as I know.

Should be. If there are legitimate MOBs able to do the work he’s taking credit for, he’s taking bread from their families and pouring it into politicians’ pockets.
JeffS
July 28th, 2012 @ 3:48 pm

Oh, I agree, McGehee. And I think it’s discouraged, by ethical contracting officers, when they can catch them. But disqualifying contractors is next to impossible, and screening the bad ones from any one bid is impossible.

Alas, Federal goobermint contracting is an entire universe unto itself, of which no mortal man can fully grasp and understand. I stopped trying years ago.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
July 28th, 2012 @ 4:12 pm

Dumbass, he should go on line and contribute via credit card from Europe, South America, Asia, etc. That is how Team Obama gets it done!
McGehee
July 28th, 2012 @ 4:22 pm

Oh, I agree, McGehee.

I had no doubt you did. I just get … dynamic about some things.
smitty
July 28th, 2012 @ 4:27 pm

I read the article, and I’m willing to commit to a definite Hmmm.
richard mcenroe
July 28th, 2012 @ 4:30 pm

So many people don’t remember this guy, he could be our next Democratic president. But yeah, he’s definitely on the con.
Eric D. Mertz
July 28th, 2012 @ 4:41 pm

Did this remind anyone of the shenanigans going on with ACORN and Citizens Consulting Inc. in New Orleans? Because that was my first thought.

It is entirely possible this guy has made a legitimate fortune and kept it by living in simple conditions and eating Chinese food every night, but something doesn’t smell right here.
DaveO
July 28th, 2012 @ 5:20 pm

Most corporations, like LockMart, will front a minority, woman, and veteran to get 8a set-asides. The corporations have enough Senators to keep it legal.
crosspatch
July 28th, 2012 @ 5:35 pm

One thing I thought of was drug money. If I were a drug cartel, I would have a huge market in New York. I would also want the politicians who are most likely to be “hard on drugs” to be in power. I would not want drug laws eased because they act as a barrier to competition and keep the prices up. I would not be too worried about the actual laws because the lower level law enforcement can be bought off to look the other way.

My question would be if he has been giving money to others in capacities not connected with political donations such as bribes.

He could be a conduit by which drug cartels manage political donations in the US. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a lot of that going on in large markets like NY, Chicago, and LA.

Or maybe he’s just a kook that inherited a lot of money.
SDN
July 28th, 2012 @ 6:16 pm

In both Federal and State contracting, this is normal. I would say, based on 30 years experience, that 75% of the 8a set-aside companies are token minority figurehead organizations. And the DoD has an open policy that whenever possible, 8a companies will be used even if they are not the lowest bidder.
DaveO
July 28th, 2012 @ 7:43 pm

Yes, the point is: corruption is institutionalized.

That’s why I’m a fan of the sequestration; and, the additional measure of banning military officers of all ranks, commissioned, warrent, and non-commissioned, from working for DoD vendors.
SDN
July 28th, 2012 @ 8:02 pm

And exactly how far does that relationship need to go? The company I work for hires people who work for commercial vendors one month and DoD the next. Will we be able to convince anyone to volunteer if they have to give up the right to get a job once they’re out?
Adjoran
July 29th, 2012 @ 12:39 am

In the ideal system, there would be no restrictions on how much anyone could give to a political campaign (um, free speech, eh?) with disclosure, and people would mind their own damned business.
K-Bob
July 29th, 2012 @ 5:41 am

Wow. The NYT just uncovered more suspicious facts about this man in one short story, than they managed with Obama in the last six years.
McGehee
July 29th, 2012 @ 8:50 am

I tried to “vote up” your comment by clicking “Like” several times but the “thumbs up” just kept flashing on and off.
DaveO
July 29th, 2012 @ 1:29 pm

SDN:

There will always be volunteers. Very few join with the idea of becoming a cubicle crunchy making LockMart, SAIC, L3Com and others big bucks. I’m retired Army and worked for those companies among others.

I don’t work for them anymore. The corruption is too deep in the bone and the US of A can only be saved by a radical amputation. The flip side is more opportunities and being able to buy tanks and aircraft for less than half of what we’re paying now and increased numbers of recruits.
K-Bob
July 29th, 2012 @ 7:26 pm

Thanks!

Disqus has some issues with the like button. I suspect it’s their safety valve: when traffic gets too high, they disable that first (each time you hit it, it’s a call to their server), then they disable stuff on their dashboard and moderator pages, then finally they disable edits. Each feature they disable buys a little more overhead for displaying comments and allowing replies.

This is just a guess, but that’s how it seems to me (based on my rough knowledge of the AJAX, or whatever Microsoft calls their version, timing of controls (buttons, and other stuff on forms) on a page.)
McGehee
July 29th, 2012 @ 9:10 pm

Well, now I’ll have to ruin the joke. The idea was that I wanted to click “Like” a bunch of times so you’d end up with a bunch of extra “Like”s.

Of course that doesn’t work.
K-Bob
July 29th, 2012 @ 9:59 pm

I totally missed it! Too clever by half, as the Brits say. Dang. I need more beer!