Former secretary of Health and Human Services Department Tommy Thompson has forged a lucrativepartnership with VeriChip Corp. — a company he used to regulate.
In 2005 and ’06, VeriChip paid nearly $1 million in legal fees to Washington law firm Akin Gump — where Thompson is a partner.
Thompson also serves on VeriChip’s board of directors.
He has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock options from the company. The stock is likely to skyrocket when the company goes public as planned.
Thompson also received $5,000 per quarter for serving on the board.
But the relationship has not always been so cozy. During his tenure as health secretary, the Food and Drug Administration — an agency Thompson oversaw in his role as health and human services chief — warned VeriChip to stop marketing its chip as FDA-approved.
The Nov. 8, 2002, FDA letter charged VeriChip’s parent company Applied Digital Solutions with sending out “misleading information” and ordered the company to cease and desist.
Shortly after leaving the administration last year, Thompson joined the board of Applied Digital Solutions. He no longer is listed as a board member, but he joined the VeriChip’s board that same year.
Thompson told The Examiner that he hasn’t tried to sway the Pentagon toward implanting the chips in military personnel.
“Anything that I do, people can criticize because I’ve been in politics for a long time,” he said.
Coincidentally, Wisconsin — where Thompson was governor before coming to Washington — has passed a law prohibiting employers from implanting their employees with chips without their permission.
Doug Farry, managing director in law firm McKenna, Long & Aldrige’s Government Affairs practice, said the Wisconsin law was a rebuke to VeriChip, which has been an aggressive marketer.
“I suspect it was passed because … Thompson is on the board of director of VeriChip,” he said.
Thompson disagreed.
“VeriChip supported that law,” he said. “We’re completely voluntary.”
