Sunday, November 4, 2012

Did Tommy Thompson Illegally Delay Reporting Donation From Troubled Medical Supply Company?

Just last week, I reported how Tommy Thompson, and his son, Jason, had gained some significant lucre from a troubled medical supply company that harmed thousands of women.

For "volunteering" to be on the board of C.R. Bard company, Thompson got about $130,000 in stock options. C.R. Bard is a medical supply company that has paid out $184 million in fines and damages for faulty mesh implants. I have also learned that C.R. Bard and its subsidiaries have outsourced nearly 1,300 jobs since 1994.

Now, after receiving all this money and despite the harm they have caused to innocent victims and outsourcing all those jobs, Thompson has been pushing for massive tax breaks for C.R. Bard.

Pretty bad stuff, right? But as readers of Cog Dis already know, when it comes to the Republicans, there's more. There's always more.

On, September 21, 2012, C.R. Bard made a generous donation of $5,000 to Thompson's campaign, as shown by their report to the Federal Election Commission, which I've also taken a screen shot of for the gentle reader's convenience:


Gee, thanks a lot Citizens United for drowning out the people's voice.

Thompson's campaign recorded and reported the donation on October 30, 2012, per their financial report:

Thompson 48 Hr Report - CR Bard


And therein lies Thompson's problem. You see, by federal election laws, Thompson was required to record and report this donation within ten days of receipt:
Deposit of receipts and disbursements (2 U.S.C. 432(h)(1)).

(a) All receipts by a political committee shall be deposited in account(s) established pursuant to 11 CFR 103.2, except that any contribution may be, within 10 days of the treasurer's receipt, returned to the contributor without being deposited. The treasurer of the committee shall be responsible for making such deposits. All deposits shall be made within 10 days of the treasurer's receipt. A committee shall make all disbursements by check or similar drafts drawn on an account at its designated campaign depository, except for expenditures of $100 or less made from a petty cash fund maintained pursuant to 11 CFR 102.11. Funds may be transferred from the depository for investment purposes, but shall be returned to the depository before such funds are used to make expenditures.
In summary, Thompson tried to skirt the law by illegally delaying the reporting of the campaign donation he received from a company which has made obscene profits by pushing faulty products on thousands of innocent and unsuspecting victims, and which has outsourced so many American jobs. He probably did not want to draw further attention to the way he also profited from their maleficent actions or how he is advocating for this company to get even bigger tax breaks than they already have.

Another thing that Thompson doesn't want Wisconsin voters to know is how cozy he is with so many lobbyists, as Steve Hanson reports.

The choice is clear. You can vote for Baldwin, who will stand up for Wisconsin and against special corporate interests, or you can vote for Thompson who will sell out Wisconsin to the special corporate interests.

3 comments:

  1. Huh? Check this out.

    Another $5000.00 from C.R. Bard Inc. Active Citizenship Committee to Tommy Thompson for Senate on 06/13/2012. Unless this was refunded in some way, isn't the limit $5,000.00 per election to a candidate from this type of contributor? (See http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/contriblimits.shtml )

    See C.R Bard Inc. Active Citizenship Committee FEC filing (FEC FORM 3X) filed 07/13/2012. Not sure if this link will work, go to page 21 in the referenced filing.

    http://images.nictusa.com/pdf/745/12971421745/12971421745.pdf#navpanes=0



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here is the page link for the 06/13/2012 contribution to Tommy Thompson.

      http://images.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?12971421765

      Since there was a primary, the limit is $5,000 for each election, so C.R. Bard Inc. does not love Tommy to excess.

      Delete
  2. As to the dating of contributions for reporting purposes one may refer to what the FEC says. See page 23 here: http://www.fec.gov/pdf/candgui.pdf#page=93

    As to deposits, the FEC says on page 24 of the above linked document:

    Date of Deposit: While all contributions must be deposited within 10 days, the date of deposit is not used for reporting or contribution limit purposes.








    ReplyDelete