This happens at so many levels in the defense sector, and I suppose other areas such as that bloated administrative turkey DHS,. What I saw at much humbler levels was that if you were an O-5 or GS-12/13/14 and wanted to work for a contractor after retiring you better be known as a very cooperative team player. If one was an O-6 or above or a GS/M-15 or SES the requirement was to be directly cooperative with contractors on whatever they wanted to do. There are stiff rules keeping people from going to work for a company they had contractual dealings with. However, contractors share information about people and the kiss of death was for the contractor you were working with to put out the word to the brethren that you were ‘difficult or uncooperative’ to deal with.
Sounds like you have been there.
At Lockheed we had to file a conflict of interest form each year. I can’t imagine how Comey could have done that. I suspect that at his level there were ways to get around the annual filing.
You could not have a relative working for a customer or another contractor with which we did businss. As I understand Comey, the FBI was a customer for some of Lockheed’s IT work. I suspect is is as corrupt as it can be. But that is why Trump got elected. He may or may not put a stop to it, but not for lack of trying.