Did Giuliani Partners' Biz Deal with Dossier Gatherers Break the Law?

Time magazine has a story that scrutinizes Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani's dodgy business relationships.

In particular, the piece focuses on the way Giuliani Partners made money from client Seisint. Long time THREAT LEVEL* *readers will remember this company as the one that compiled massive dossiers on individuals who were classified as terrorism suspects -- even if they didn't have prior criminal records. Access to the databases was sold to federal and state law enforcement officials who were participating in an information-sharing program called the Multi-State Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange program, otherwise known as Matrix.

The program has since died because of its controversial nature, but the *Time *piece focuses on the way Giuliani Partners was paid.

Here's the key paragraph:

But the Seisint deal wasn't as perfect as it seemed. One problem: the payment of percentages or commissions to "solicit or secure" government contracts is prohibited by federal law and laws of some states. Tom
Susman, ethics chairman of the American League of Lobbyists, says the bar on commissions is intended to eliminate incentives for middlemen to bend the rules to land a contract. A GP official who refused to be named insists that the firm never received "commissions" from Seisint —
despite what Brauser and Latham remember and despite the fact that payments to GP are labeled "commissions" in both the minutes of a
Seisint board meeting and a key financial statement. Instead, says the official, GP earned "special bonuses" based on the achievement of corporate "milestones."

You can read the whole piece here.

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