Lobbyist: Company involved in Jefferson scandal was ‘hogwash’
By Kevin Bogardus
June 15, 2007
A company that cosponsored a trip to Africa noted in Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) indictment showed signs of trouble before it established itself in the Bahamas and filed for bankruptcy in Louisiana.
In his first interview since the Jefferson scandal broke, one of the company’s former lobbyists, Dick Egle, said his contract with what seemed like a promising energy company did not turn out as planned.
“I was pretty excited about it when I first heard about it,” Egle told The Hill. But later, he added, “It was like trying to herd cats.”
Egle, whose firm Egle Associates is based in Vienna, Va., lobbied for Global Environmental Energy Corp (GEEC) throughout 2004. The company since has been caught up in the federal government’s investigation of Jefferson.
“I did not want to be any part of it. They just gave me one story after another,” Egle said, describing such tales as “all hogwash.” The contract was not renewed.
The company’s president, Noreen Wilson, testified before the grand jury that charged Jefferson, according to billing documents filed by GEEC’s attorney Joseph Artabane this spring in the company’s New Orleans bankruptcy case. GEEC, under its prior name, Life Energy & Technology Holdings, also known as LETH Energy, cosponsored a February 2004 trip Jefferson took to West Africa, cited in the congressman’s indictment as part of one of his many alleged bribery schemes.
“The company cooperated fully with the investigation and is not a target or subject of the investigation,” Artabane said. The company’s counsel chose not to respond to Egle’s complaints.
The Justice Department declined to comment for this story.
According to the billing documents, Wilson signed a cooperation agreement with the government in order to testify before the grand jury and provided requested documents and cooperated with interviews by federal prosecutors over the past year.
Messages left for Wilson were not returned by press time. In an August 2005 interview with the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Wilson said Jefferson “always helped” American firms interested in Africa but “never asked for anything in return.”
Egle has not been contacted by federal investigators. He never lobbied Jefferson for GEEC and did not help to arrange the lawmaker’s trip to West Africa. Nor he is “Lobbyist A,” as termed in Jefferson’s indictment, who allegedly arranged bribes between the congressman and various companies.
Jefferson has pleaded not guilty to the Justice Department’s charges and will fight them at his trial, set for January 2008.
With a goal of becoming an integrated energy company, GEEC has been marketing a process to turn municipal solid waste into electricity as well as dabbling in the oil and gas market. Nonetheless, Egle described his experiences of lobbying for the company as being without direction from his client.
“They would have a meeting. Then they would put out a press release. Then nothing happened,” Egle said.
Egle was frustrated by the company’s lack of progress in Louisiana. A Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing stated delivery of its waste-energy units in America had been delayed by the company’s U.S. bankruptcy as well as its clients’ failure to meet its terms.
The energy business has been tough for GEEC. Though several units are under construction for use in China and the company has signed past power deals as well, GEEC expected its losses to continue, saying it needs to raise “additional funds” or shareholders “may lose some or all of their investment,” according to the SEC filing.
The company changed its name and its location during Egle’s contract. In August 2004, then Life Energy & Technology Holdings Inc. became GEEC and established itself in the Bahamas. Its main place of business remained in New Orleans, however.
Approached by an associate, the lobbyist was hired by Wilson for his contacts in Louisiana. A former Lafourche Parish president and Chamber of Commerce leader during the 1980s, Egle also owned two local radio stations in his home state.
“I was elected a Republican when there were only three percent registered Republicans in Lafourche,” Egle said.
Throughout his 14 years as a lobbyist, Egle has been familiar with Louisiana’s congressional delegation and touched base with them on the company’s plans. Egle pitched that GEEC’s technology would be good for the state “and we will let know as we get further along, but nothing ever happened.”
In addition, the lobbyist said he tracked waste-energy provisions in what became the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which was then moving through Congress, but little came of that as well.
“In this business, time is money and you can only do so much. It has to be them giving me instructions on what I can do for them, not me asking what I can do for them,” Egle said.
Egle earned $120,000 for his year’s worth of lobbying, according to Senate records. But the Louisianan said the records are mistaken — claiming instead that he earned $60,000 — and that he plans to amend the forms. In addition, he said he lost money on the contract since planned stock earnings from the company went down in value.
GEEC is moving through its bankruptcy case in New Orleans. The company recently had its case status changed to Chapter 7 from 11 and its creditors are holding meetings, according to court records.
In turn, Egle has officially ended his relationship with GEEC. The lobbyist said he filed a termination agreement last week.
