Dealings Have Potential For Trouble If Ex-Mayor Receives Nomination
Posted November 7, 2007
Rudy Giuliani is one of the few candidates ever to pursue the White House while maintaining a high-ranking role in a private-sector firm.
But since he became a candidate for president, the Republican front-runner has rebuffed all calls to disclose details about the clients and dealings of Giuliani Partners, the consulting firm he founded in 2002.
Some of those clients have controversial records. Among those he hasn’t disclosed is the government of Qatar, a Persian Gulf state to whom the firm provided security advice, according to the former U.S. ambassador there. Qatar is a strategic U.S. military ally and energy supplier, yet also a country that has been criticized for its conduct toward al Qaeda — a potential political pitfall for a candidate pitching himself as an uncompromising foe of Islamic terrorism.
Other potentially controversial dealings have been disclosed by the firm or by clients over the years. They include Purdue Pharma, a drug company that hired the firm in 2002 to help with a federal investigation into overdose deaths attributed to the pharmaceutical firm’s powerful OxyContin painkiller, and New York nuclear-power-plant operator Entergy Nuclear Northeast.
But more recent Giuliani clients aren’t known. Because the firm is closely held, Mr. Giuliani isn’t required to disclose much about his income and wealth, other than his holdings in the firm itself, where he remains chairman and chief executive and receives income in the form of guaranteed payments and partnership distributions.