The fact that this slimy bastard is the Senate majority leader says loads about the sorry state, and pervasive corruption, of federal republican elected officials. Look for the republicans to defend themselves by asserting that the democrats were just as corrupt when they controlled Congress.
From the Associated Press
Frist’s AIDS charity paid $456,000 in consulting fees to his political allies
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Jonathan M. Katz and John Solomon
Associated Press
Washington
– Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s AIDS charity paid nearly a half-million dollars in consulting fees to members of his political inner circle, according to tax returns providing the first financial accounting of the presidential hopeful’s nonprofit group.
The returns for World of Hope Inc., obtained by the Associated Press, also show that the charity raised the lion’s share of its $4.4 million from just 18 sources. They gave between $97,950 and $267,735 each to help finance Frist’s efforts to fight AIDS.
The tax forms, filed nine months after they were first due, do not identify the 18 major donors by name.
Frist’s lawyer, Alex Vogel, said Friday that he would not give their names because tax law does not require their public disclosure. Frist’s office provided a list of 96 donors who supported the charity, but how much each contributed was not disclosed.
The donors included several corporations with frequent business before Congress, such as insurer Blue Cross/Blue Shield, manufacturer 3M, drug maker Eli Lilly and the Goldman Sachs investment firm.
World of Hope gave $3 million it raised to charitable AIDS causes, such as Africare and evangelical Christian groups with ties to Republicans — Franklin Graham’s Samaritan Purse and the Rev. Luis Cortes’ Esperanza USA, for example.
The rest of the money went to overhead. That included $456,125 in consulting fees to two firms run by Frist’s longtime political fund-raiser, Linus Catignani. One is run jointly by Linda Bond, the wife of Sen. Christopher “Kit” Bond, Republican of Missouri.
The charity also hired the law firm of Vogel’s wife, Jill Holtzman Vogel, and Frist’s Tennessee accountant, Deborah Kolarich.
