Hillary Clinton will attend a fundraiser at the Baton Rouge home of a well-connected contractor Monday who worked on a $2 billion State Department contract while Clinton served as secretary of state.
Jim Bernhard, former CEO of the Shaw Group, said “it will come as no surprise” that he and his wife are “longtime Hillary supporters” in an email invitation to supporters earlier this month, according to the Baton Rouge Business Journal.
Bernhard’s company had announced its participation in a $2 billion contract with the State Department in 2011. The Shaw Group, along with 12 other companies, was looped into a deal to build and furnish foreign service posts.
At the time, the firm was the target of an investigation by the Tennessee Valley Authority’s inspector general after a Shaw Group manager was accused of covering up injuries at three nuclear sites in Tennessee and Alabama.
The Shaw Group had also faced criticism for its handling of government-funded projects in the past. The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general criticized Bernhard’s firm in 2008 for potentially wasting millions of dollars in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Reports on the watchdog’s findings suggested the Shaw Group had “strong government and political ties.” The company had netted $830 million for disaster recovery projects after the storm.
But three years later, Bernhard’s firm was allowed to bid on the sprawling State Department contract.
Clinton is slated to attend the event at Bernhard’s home on Monday afternoon. The fundraiser will reportedly cost each invitee $2,700 to attend.
Clinton’s close ties to corporations have come under fire in the past.
For example, a lucrative deal between Boeing and a Russian airline company, which Clinton helped secure as secretary of state, was scrutinized after it was discovered Boeing had donated generously to the Clinton Foundation around the time of the contract.
