Call it the revenge of Sulaimon Brown. After Mayor Vincent Gray hired the former mayoral candidate as a $110,000-a-year “special assistant” in the Department of Health Care Finance, it soon became apparent Brown had no clue about health care financing — but he did have a history of legal problems, including a restraining order against him and a 1995 conviction for unlawful entry. An embarrassed Gray promptly fired Brown, who then claimed he had been given money and promised a city job for attacking incumbent Adrian Fenty on the campaign trail.
Investigations by city and congressional officials did not confirm Brown’s account. However, his accusation sparked a federal investigation into campaign finance that now threatens to engulf some of the biggest names in Washington politics. On March 2, FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents raided the home and office of Jeffrey Thompson. One of the District’s top political donors, Thompson abruptly resigned from the boards of his health care and accounting firms last month as federal grand jury subpoenas went out to at least six D.C. Council members who had accepted contributions from him and his associates.
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The subpoenas demanded “all documents” — including emails, meeting notes and campaign records — related to Thompson, owner of D.C. Chartered Health Plan Inc., a managed care company that has the city’s largest contract — $322 million annually to help manage its Medicaid program. Over the last decade, Thompson’s accounting firm (which, curiously, once also employed Brown) received nearly $50 million in contracts from 20 city agencies. Thompson’s network donated money to every council member except Tommy Wells. He also padded the campaign coffers of Democrats Martin O’Malley in Maryland and Mark Warner, Tim Kaine and Terry McAuliffe in Virginia, plus Virginia Republican Tom Davis.
Thompson has not been charged with any crime, but the ongoing federal investigation is not helping Chartered’s chances of extending its lucrative five-year contract, which is due to expire next May. But here’s a question: Did Thompson use his political connections to win his current contract, three years after he paid the District $12 million to settle a lawsuit that accused him of overcharging District taxpayers? An audit released Feb. 16 by D.C. Inspector General Charles Willoughby found the Medicaid program paid $3.8 million in questionable claims in 2009, but the audit specifically excluded privately held managed care contractors like Chartered. That audit should be next.
