RICHMOND — A prominent political donor gave $70,000 to a corporation owned by Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and his sister last year, and the governor did not disclose the money as a gift or loan, according to people with knowledge of the payments.
The donor, wealthy businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr., also gave a previously unknown $50,000 check to the governor’s wife, Maureen, in 2011, the people said.
The money to the corporation and Maureen McDonnell brings to $145,000 the amount Williams gave to assist the McDonnell family in 2011 and 2012 — funds that are now at the center of federal and state investigations.
Williams, the chief executive of dietary supplement manufacturer Star Scientific Inc., also provided a $10,000 check in December as a present to McDonnell’s eldest daughter, Jeanine, intended to help defray costs at her May 2013 wedding, the people said.
Virginia’s first family already is under intense scrutiny for accepting $15,000 from the same chief executive to pay for the catering at the June 2011 wedding of Cailin McDonnell at the Executive Mansion.
All the payments came as McDonnell and his wife took steps to promote the donor’s company and its products.
The payments to the corporation, confirmed by people familiar with the transactions, offer the first public example of money provided by Williams that would directly benefit the governor and not just his family.
The money went from a trust, controlled by Williams, to MoBo Real Estate Partners, a limited-liability corporation formed in 2005 by McDonnell and his sister, the sources said.
McDonnell viewed the payments to MoBo and to his wife as loans and not gifts, according to three people familiar with the transactions. State law requires elected officials to disclose their personal loans but not loans made to their corporate interests.
Tucker Martin, a spokesman for the governor, declined to comment on the payments other than to say that McDonnell has been diligent in filling out legally mandated disclosures.
Good grief. I had no idea being governor in Virginia was such a lucrative business. Something is wrong. I am not actually going to say that the Virginia governor is a crook or is on the take. I don’t know. Either he is in the wrong or the State of Virginia is in the wrong. Regardless, Virginia’s lady virtue needs to tighten up the laws regarding gifts to elected officials and to family members of elected officials. Being an elected official in Virginia should close the doors on monetary impropriety, not open them wider.
McDonnell’s governorship will forever be tainted by this sense of impropriety, regardless of the outcome. He is wrong, his family is wrong. I am not saying illegal….just wrong.
I’m not trying to defend him here … I don’t have much of an opinion on McDonnell at this point. But I woill say this.
They ALL profiteer. By “they”, I mean the elitists who run our government. They always figure out ways to enrich themselves and live up to the income level of their corrupt peers. If they can’t become olobbyists, their SPOUSES become lobbyists and weird influence (Daschle, Gramm). One Governor a couple of decades ago had a wife who was one of the higher-paid lawyers in his state, double-billing away like crazy and benefitting from shady stock tips. Another relative newbie from the state of illinois paid the going rate for his house, but had a benefactor buy the one next door and sell it to him for a fraction of worth, enabling him to expand his estate.
So seeing McDonnell do this is like seeing an animal breath, or eat. It’s expected. Heck, I’d do it too.
Eric Cantor’s wife is the chairman of VRS, Clarence Thomas’s wife is fleecing someone, I don’t remember who…oh yea, the American people. Now there is conflict of interest if I have ever heard of it.
And I think that until the day we enact term limits, we’re always going to have this type of stuff going on either above or below board.
Of course, we have them for the governorship. Guess McDonnell made a short-sighted grab for money.
What is the most enraging is I don’t think he thinks he did anything wrong. If the chef hadn’t been arrested, we wouldn’t know any of this.
Did he do something illegal? I have no idea. Did he do something that stinks to high heaven? yes. So did Cuccinelli. He just didn’t have the power to abuse the system as much as Gov. Untrasound did.
I might not be so tough on him other than he had the gall to sign all those anti-reproductive rights laws into state law. He really is in no position to be assuming the high moral ground on much of anything. How effen dare he!
And don’t forget that the Cooch is not averse to a hand in the cookie jar. Apparently serving in a high government office in Richmond is like serving as an evangelist … always thankful for a “love offering.”
http://m.roanoke.com/mobile/1822123-29/cuccinellis-conflict.html
Gov ultra-sound and Cooch. What a dream ticket, sorta like Nixon-Cheney. Boy, the Reps. sure do have a long bench.
If the latest allegations are true, it’s clear that Governor Ultrasound should go. I actually think he did a passable job as governor with the exception of when his religious extremism got in the way (and gave him his name). He showed real courage with his transportation bill, which is way too regressive for my taste, but probably better than nothing.
The problem is, even if he wanted to do the right thing, he’s kind of stuck. If he resigns, he tacitly admits he’s a crook, and his political future is probably over. If he doesn’t, he may face criminal charges, but he may not due to the nature of the payments and gifts that went through other people and corporations. It’s murky enough that he may skate, and memories are short in the electorate these days…
Its that sense of entitlement that I find irksome. I surely don’t think he is the only one. Not even close. He needs a good scare and the General Assembly needs to enact some strict laws about gifts and cash exchanges. This family business is for the birds.
I agree about mcDonnell ….until he let his religious extremism take over. Then I was done with him. Governor Ultra-Sound will stick. he also should have fired that beast at UVA….Helen Dregas. She nearly destroyed the school. She certainly hurt its academic standing.
McDonnel is, by far, the most corrupt governor in the history of the Commonwealth.
I happen to believe that Bob McDonnell has been a fairly conscientious, effective Governor. Re Starry’s ranking of him, I think that analysis might not stand up under close examination of the 70 guys who preceded McDonnell. Corruption to me means that, in return for things of value, a public official performs his official duties differently and in favor of the donor than he would have if he had acted objectively. I haven’t seen that yet.
We don’t know everything at this point, but we all know enough to know that something is terribly out of kilter when some groupie businessman can attach himself to the First Family of Virginia and pour tens of thousands of dollars down the gaping maws of people around the Governor. Because I think that the Governor is essentially a good man who tried hard to do some good things for the State, I’m probably more unwilling than many here to throw stones at this point. But I am very unhappy with what’s going on.
One thing that perhaps we can coalesce around is that the ethical rules that govern our public officials in this state are ridiculously vague and ineffective. The Governor has said that he has complied with these rules and that there is nothing that has happened that is out of synch with predecessors. I can’t fully evaluate that, but I think he’s right in the sense that we have put so much emphasis on transparency with regard to the immediate office holder that we are permitting a lot of shenanigans with regard to family, corporations, trusts, etc that may not hold office, but who would not have received the gratuity but for the position held by someone else. We ought to put an end to that. I suspect that the General Assembly is shot through, both parties, with people who have received favors that the reasonable citizen would view as having been politically motivated. And, of course, the GA is the pool from which, with very few exceptions, all our statewide elected officials crawl ashore.
PS: who the hell is this Jonnie Williams and why does he have so much money to throw around? I’m astounded at the scope of his largesse. Is Star Scientific that successful?
It looks like he has run it in the ground. Its worth $1.49 a share now.
https://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3ASTSI&sq=scientific%20star&sp=1&ei=SKjeUegHnLyWA4vgAQ&hl=en
Why greed is one of the seven deadly sins. We are allowing corporate leaders to steer and redefine the basic rules of society with regard to business ethics. All under the guise of “conservatism”. A philosophy which has also been redefined to suit the desired outcome for people like Koch and Haliburton.
I think it would be in the best interests of the Commonwealth for McDonnell to resign the governorship immediately. It would also be in the best interest for the local Republican Party, as well as for the governor and his family. That would allow him to spend his time clearing his name since has says he has been falsely accused.
I agree with Starry, Lyssa and Scout, in addition to Moon, who I almost always agree with!
State employees can’t even accept trinkets from people they come in contact with while on the job- what does it do to morale when they know their Governor has taken almost $200,000?
I love Virginia.
We get outraged over this apparently minor corruption, as we should.
In Louisiana….it would never had made the news…especially in the 70’s….. We had on governor say, “Prove it” when told the charges of racketeering and corruption. He won the case.
He’s in jail NOW….. but on charges filed decades later.