[Vision2020] Larry Craig widens his stance

[Bill London]

Lewiston Tribune, May 23, 2010
NASA investigation into UI lab turns up troubling allegations
Federal investigator's report raises question of whether former U.S. Sen. Larry Craig gave earmarks in exchange for campaign contributions
By Joel Mills of the Tribune
May 23, 2010

MOSCOW - Former U.S. Sen. Larry Craig said a NASA investigator's suggestion that he traded University of Idaho research earmarks for campaign contributions is nonsense.

"If I'm guilty of anything, it's being a strong supporter of the University of
Idaho and all its research programs," Craig said recently by phone from his home in Eagle, Idaho.

In 2007, NASA special investigator Michael Delaney wrote to the Idaho attorney general's office suggesting there was a link between Craig campaign contributions made by employees at the UI Center for Advanced Microelectronics and Biomolecular Research (CAMBR) and $3 million in earmarks Craig secured for the center.

Craig is a UI alumnus, but said he also worked hard to secure federal research funding for Boise State University and Idaho State University.

"I used my position on the appropriations committee to bring as many resources to those universities as I possibly could," Craig said. "For anybody to suggest a quid pro quo, there's a simple answer to that: They haven't done their homework and they don't know what they're talking about."

Mike Ware, Craig's longtime chief of staff and now his partner in a lobbying firm, also discounted the alleged connection.

"I think it's an irresponsible comment on the part of the investigator," Ware said from his Washington, D.C., office. "It shows absolutely no awareness of the process, and whatever checks and balances are put in."

Delaney's 2007 e-mail and an attached summary of alleged grant fraud at CAMBR were recently provided to the Lewiston Tribune by state Rep. Tom Trail, R-Moscow, who requested them from the attorney general late last year.

Delaney works in the NASA Office of Inspector General, which is in charge of independent oversight of the space agency.

Trail also provided the Tribune with a summary of the attorney general's own investigation into CAMBR, which found several problems, but no criminal acts.

Trail said the documents corroborate many of the stories he has heard from UI engineering faculty members about wrongdoing at CAMBR.

"If those allegations are correct, they look pretty serious," Trail said.

An Oct. 21, 2009, letter the attorney general's office sent to Trail said it appears the NASA investigation has been closed. But Trail thinks the investigation is very much alive. He said he has been in frequent contact with Delaney to relate what he knows abut the CAMBR situation.

NASA spokeswoman Renee Juhans said the agency would neither confirm nor deny that an investigation is still under way regarding grant funding for CAMBR. NASA responded with a form letter to a Freedom of Information Act request made by the Tribune for the grant history between the agency and the UI.

The letter acknowledged receipt of the request, but did not indicate how long it would take to supply those records.

Trail said the NASA investigation has stoked his fears that the UI could lose a substantial amount of federal research funding if it leads to a damaging scandal or even criminal charges.

He also singled out UI Provost Doug Baker as trying to placate him over the years about his concerns regarding CAMBR.

When told of Trail's comments, Baker said he was surprised and was clearly dismayed.

Baker said he was always up front with Trail about CAMBR, and would contact him to figure out why he would claim otherwise.

Baker also questioned whether the NASA investigation was truly active, since Trail initiated the recent contacts with Delaney.

Some of the problems at CAMBR - such as conflicts of interest, nepotism and misuse of UI resources - had been revealed in a 2005 internal UI audit. Then-President Tim White promised corrective action when the audit was released the next year.

In 2009, newly installed UI Vice President for Research Jack McIver said stronger checks and balances had been instituted at the center.

Gary Maki was CAMBR's director for most of its 20-year history at both the UI and the University of New Mexico.

The UI demoted Maki from his director's position in 2007 after allegations that he led a smear campaign by orchestrating a letter from NASA that harshly criticized colleague Kenneth Hass.

Hass and his wife sued the university over Maki's actions. The Hasses and the UI reached a $105,000 out-of-court settlement last year.

Maki retired in 2009, and has severed all ties with the UI, McIver said.

Maki did not respond to requests for comment from the Tribune.

While the problems at CAMBR have been widely reported, the "fraud synopsis" Delaney sent to the Idaho attorney general provides more detail on the alleged fraudulent use of NASA grants to personally benefit certain CAMBR employees.

Delaney's e-mail to deputy attorney general Scott Smith alleges various forms of grant and licensing fraud undertaken by Maki and fellow researcher Jody Gambles. According to Delaney, there was evidence that: 

* Lobbying costs were falsely claimed as consultant costs on one NASA contract; 

* Indirect fringe benefit costs were mischarged as direct costs; 

* False statements were made that one CAMBR spin-off company had an exclusive license to intellectual property owned by the Idaho Research Foundation;

* False statements were made about advanced achievements of CAMBR technology; 

* Research funds were obtained through political influence.

Delaney wrote that Craig earmarked grants for various CAMBR projects to produce computer chips for NASA that could tolerate the radiation encountered during space travel.

"Campaign contributions to Craig by or on behalf of Gary Maki and other individuals and organizations identified in this investigation were researched," Delaney wrote.

Other than Maki, the names of those other individuals and organizations are deleted in the copy of the e-mail Trail gave to the Tribune. It lists three donations of $1,000, and two donations of $6,000, with names deleted after each amount is given. 

The report details four instances where Maki, Gambles and others allegedly misused grant funding, made false claims about licenses for intellectual property developed at the center, or tried to circumvent UI licensing policies.

"Maki and Gambles conspired to defraud the government by applying for NASA grants ... with the intention of using the awards to subsidize their private firm, ICs LLC, and a private venture, Concise Logic Inc., with the intention of not completing the grant research promised," Delaney wrote in a section titled "CAMBR/NASA grant fraud."

In an e-mail exchange with the Lewiston Tribune last week, Gambles said that allegation was "just plain silly."

"If grants are awarded, but the research is not delivered, there is not going to be any more grants in the future," Gambles wrote, noting Maki's success in securing tens of millions of dollars through scores of grants. "CAMBR has an excellent and well-earned reputation for delivering to our sponsors."

The synopsis also alleges that Maki and Gambles made false statements that they had obtained an exclusive license for ICs to manufacture computer chips that had been developed by the UI, when in fact ICs added "no value" to the device.

"All work, developing, outsourcing the manufacturing, and marketing of the devices was accomplished by CAMBR employees using UI resources, with NASA grant funding," Delaney wrote. "No unique capabilities or expertise (was) added by ICs."

A section of the synopsis titled "Concise Logic Scheme" describes work done by Maki, Gambles and CAMBR colleagues to benefit their "struggling private company," Concise Logic Inc., using UI resources during their normal workday.

"They are expected to precisely and fairly separate their work on this agreement from their publicly-funded research grants," Delaney wrote. "CAMBR managers used their positions as state employees for the pecuniary benefit of Concise Logic."

Gambles disputed those and other allegations made in the eight-page synopsis.

"In its opening sentence, the document purports intention to subsidize both ICs and (Concise Logic Inc.) with funds from NASA grants to the University of Idaho," Gambles wrote. "In reality, monies flowed exactly in the opposite direction. Both ICs and CLI had contracts to pay the UI for services."

Gambles said Maki recently returned to the Coeur d'Alene area from his winter home in Florida, and has seen the documents Delaney gave state investigators. He said Maki may want to comment on them at some future date.

Juhans, the NASA spokeswoman, said its investigations are pursued by the U.S. Department of Justice if potential criminal wrongdoing is uncovered.

But that apparently has not happened with the CAMBR investigation because no charges have ever been filed.

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Mills may be contacted at jmills at lmtribune.com or (208) 883-0564.
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