Scandal Firm Failed to Report $2 Million in Fees:
The firm at the center of the [sw: Jerry Lewis] (R-Calif.) scandal apparently failed to report $2 million in lobbying fees, according to TPM Muckraker.
Now a review of the firm’s reporting shows that, just weeks before Copeland Lowery’s status as a target of the investigation became publicly known, the firm filed more than 90 revised disclosures to Congress, alerting officials that they had misreported income from dozens of clients from 1998 to 2005.
Over three-quarters of the corrections disclosed previously unreported income totalling approximately $2 million; others corrected over-reported income of roughly $500,000.
Justin Rood points out that the revisions came in only a few key clients. One of those clients is ADCS, the defense contractor at the center of the Duke Cunningham bribery case:
From these four key clients, Copeland Lowery failed to report …
– at least $260,000 from ADCS, the San Diego-based defense contractor owned by accused briber Wilkes; – at least $270,000 from the San Diego-based Foundation for the Improvement of Math and Science Education; – at least $210,000 from the Rochester Institute of Technology; – at least $210,000 from the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD).
Lowery’s lobbying firm is “in serious legal jeopardy” according to money in politics expert and Washington lawyer Brett Kappell. Rood lays out a possible outcome, “The likely charge — making a false statement, a felony — has been used by prosecutors in recent corruption investigations to win plea bargains.”