The question is: When was he "formered?"
Well....here's SOME info....I see that Preston-GATES Law firm is where he once worked too
David Hossein Safavian (suh-FAY'-vee-an) was chief of staff of the United States General Services Administration (GSA), the procurement arm of the U.S. federal government and in 2004, an employee of the Office of Management and Budget. He was arrested September 19, 2005, based on "a three-count criminal complaint filed at federal court in Washington, D.C. The complaint charges Safavian with making false statements to a GSA ethics officer and the GSA-OIG, along with obstruction of a GSA-OIG investigation." [1] Safavian is the first person arrested in the Jack Abramoff lobbying and corruption scandal.
Contents [hide]
1 Career
2 Indictment
3 Terrorist ties
4 Miscellaneous
5 External links
[edit]
Career
An Iranian American from Detroit, Michigan, Safavian graduated fifth in his class at Detroit College of Law. In Michigan, he served as an aide to Michigan House Representatives Robert Davis (R) and William Schuette (R), and still later he worked for Janus-Merritt Strategies.
Safavian was a longtime friend of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In the mid-1990s, the two worked at the Washington-based lobbying firm of Preston Gates & Ellis. There they brought in millions to the firm while working on the Mississippi Choctaw tribal account. The pair were members of a team, reports CNN, “that was lobbying to keep the Northern Mariana Islands [a US territory] free from certain US labor and immigration laws.”
In 1997, Safavian and Grover Norquist founded a lobbying firm, the Merritt Group, which was renamed Janus-Merritt Strategies (and is sometimes referred to as "Janus Merritt" or simply "Janus"). The tenor of the firm was fiercely ideological. "We represent clients who really do have an interest in a smaller federal government," Safavian told Legal Times in a 1997 interview. "We're all very ideologically driven, and have a bias in favor of free markets." He went on: "We're not letting people who offer us money change our principles."
The firm's clients included businesses like BP America, the U.S. division of British Petroleum. There were foreign companies like the Corporacion Venezolana de Cementos and Grupo Financiero Banorte. There were gaming interests, including Indian tribes: the Saginaw Chippewa - a client the firm shared with Jack Abramoff, the Viejas band of Kumeyaay Indians, and the National Indian Gaming Association. [2]. Safavian also registered as a lobbyist for the government of Pakistan, the government of Gabon, and Pascal Lissouba, the corrupt former president of the Republic of the Congo.
In 1999, Safavian founded the Internet Consumer Choice Coalition, a nonprofit whose sole purpose was to fight a bill authored by Republican Arizona senator Jon Kyl that would have made online gambling a federal crime. Coalition members included the American Civil Liberties Union, the Association of Concerned Taxpayers, Citizens for a Sound Economy, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Interactive Services Association, the Small Business Survival Committee, and the United States Internet Council. Some coalition members--the Interactive Services Association, for one--were also clients of Safavian's. Another, Americans for Tax Reform, was Norquist's activist group.[3]
In January 2001, Safavian left Janus-Merritt to become chief of staff for Representatives Chris Cannon (R-UT). On May 16, 2002, he became chief of staff in the General Services Administration. In 2003 he was picked by President George W. Bush to oversee federal procurement policy at the Office of Management and Budget. [4] He is now age 38.
[edit]
Indictment
Safavian's indictment refers to an August 2002 golf trip to St. Andrews, Scotland involving Jack Abramoff, House Republicans Bob Ney and Tom DeLay, Grover Norquist, and former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed.
Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, have returned campaign donations that they received from Safavian.
[edit]
Terrorist ties
Safavian has been accused of working as a lobbyist for Abdurahman Alamoudi, a fierce supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah.
At his Senate confirmation hearing in April 2004, Safavian said that "To my knowledge, neither I nor Janus-Merritt did any work for Mr. Alamoudi." "I do not know why Mr. Alamoudi was erroneously listed in the client's lobby disclosure forms." More, "I do not believe Janus-Merritt received any funds from Mr. Alamoudi."
But, according to Senate disclosure reports on file, this was incorrect. For years Janus-Merritt registered as a lobbyist for Alamoudi. And then, on December 17, 2001, after Safavian had left the firm, Janus-Merritt resubmitted its disclosure forms. This time the name of Alamoudi had been replaced by the name of Dr. Jamal al Barzinji. Why the firm changed its registration is unknown.
For his part, Safavian told the Senate, al Barzinji, not Alamoudi, was his client. "Dr. Jamal al Barzinji," he said, "should have been listed as the client retaining the firm for work related to Malaysian political prisoner Anwar Ibrahim." In fact, Barzinji had been listed as a contact, not a client, on all the disclosure forms.
The replacement name is also problematical. On March 20, 2002, Barzinji's home was raided by a federal task force investigating terrorist finances. A federal affidavit identifies Barzinji as the ringleader of a group suspected of aiding terrorists. [5]
[edit]
Miscellaneous
Safavian's wife Jennifer Safavian is chief counsel for oversight and investigations on the House Government Reform Committee. [6]
The Bush administration's top federal procurement official resigned Friday and was arrested yesterday, accused of lying and obstructing a criminal investigation into Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with the federal government. It was the first criminal complaint filed against a government official in the ongoing corruption probe related to Abramoff's activities in Washington.
The complaint, filed by the FBI, alleges that David H. Safavian, 38, a White House procurement official involved until last week in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, made repeated false statements to government officials and investigators about a golf trip with Abramoff to Scotland in 2002.