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CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LIST OF ALL 400 DONORS Communications Global Crossing may be an upstart in the wireless business, but its top three executives are old hands when its comes to campaign contributions.
by Michael Scherer March 5, 2001 Lodwrick Cook (No. 85, $361,500) makes no secret about it: He is a man of influence. "If we're going to compete," the co-chairman of telecommunications giant Global Crossing told reporters, "we've got to be heard." Based in Bermuda and Beverly Hills, the company has interests in everything from undersea fiber-optic cables to wireless frequencies. "I don't apologize for access," Cook says. And access he has. Since the company was founded in 1997, Cook has led Global Crossing's storm on Washington, hosting fundraisers for key members of Congress and joining other executives in contributing six-figure sums to both parties. In exchange, politicians have bent over backward to help the upstart firm, speeding approval of its under-sea cables and pushing to hand over valuable wireless frequencies that would benefit the company. Such wheeling and dealing typifies the telecommunications industry, which contributed more than $34.8 million to candidates and their parties in the last election, five times more than a decade earlier. With Bush appointees moving into the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice, insiders expect that investment to pay off in relaxed regulation. "A Bush presidency is not likely to repeat the sins of the past," concludes a report by Dataquest, a leading industry research firm. Instead, the report states, the White House will cut oversight of the industry and be "less restrictive on how this market develops than the previous administration." Thanks to its generous contributions, Global Crossing is well positioned to take advantage of the shift. In addition to Cook, two other top executives handed out large donations: founder and chairman Gary Winnick (No. 84, $363,750) and former CEO Leo Hindery Jr. (No. 29, $591,902), who now heads Global Crossing's Internet division. At the Republican National Convention in August, the company spent $250,000 sponsoring fundraisers, including a "Carnevale Italiano" that saluted Italian-American Republicans. The company already enjoys considerable clout in Washington. When competitors like AT&T and MCI WorldCom formed a cable consortium in 1999, Global Crossing spent a reported $3 million successfully lobbying for a federal investigation of the group. Fearing probes conducted by the FCC and Justice Department, the consortium scaled back its plans to join forces. Cook announced that Global Crossing was "pleased" with the outcome. The following year, the company convinced the FCC to streamline the permit process for laying undersea fiber-optic cable, the company's central business. Global Crossing's lobbying effort got a boost from someone best known for crusading against the corrupting influence of campaign finance: Senator John McCain. In March 1999, McCain wrote a letter urging the FCC to encourage the development of the company's cables. On the last day of that month, Cook, Winnick, and other donors with ties to Global Crossing gave at least $23,000 to McCain's presidential campaign. As the value of Global Crossing's stock soared, the company has done its part to share the wealth with the politically connected. In 1998, Cook asked former President George Bush to speak at the announcement in Tokyo of Global Crossing's pan-Pacific cable. According to the Wall Street Journal, Winnick suggested that Bush take his $80,000 speaking fee in the form of company stock. Just over a year later, that stock was worth $14.4 million. Senator Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) also bought Global Crossing stock -- even as he filed a court brief supporting a bid by the company to control some $8 billion in wireless frequencies held by a bankrupt firm called NextWave Telecom. The FCC wants to put the prized frequencies up for auction, but as an investor in NextWave, Global Crossing is trying to claim the air-space without having to bid against rivals like AT&T and Sprint. That battle over frequency rights has provided the company with another valuable link to the Bush administration. With Global Crossing's backing, NextWave Telecom is represented in its bankruptcy case by Washington attorney Theodore Olson. In December, Olson appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court, where as Bush's lead counsel he helped put the candidate in the White House |
