The Obama Administration, in what appears to be yet another extreme example of political payoffs that this White House has engaged in since 2009. Combined with the Solyndra payoff, the Obama Administration has given over $1 Billion of taxpayer money to only two companies in some of the most extreme examples of crony capitalism ever seen. Like Solyndra, which was failing even before the over $500 million payoff to the now bankrupt solar company, Siga Technology's drug for smallpox is uncertain to even be effective, or whether it is even needed.
Yet another politically-motivated payoff to a friend of Obama, using taxpayer money.
A company controlled by a longtime political donor gets a no-bid contract to supply an experimental remedy for a threat that may not exist.
By David Willman, Los Angeles Times
November 13, 2011
Reporting from Washington— Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work.
Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world's richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor.
When Siga complained that contracting specialists at the Department of Health and Human Services were resisting the company's financial demands, senior officials replaced the government's lead negotiator for the deal, interviews and documents show.
Read More at The Los Angeles Times
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