[Vision2020] Larry Craig widens his stance

[Wayne Price]

And all of this under the Board of Regents of the University of Idaho  
ovesight !!!!!!!!
With this track record, do we really want a Board of Regents President  
as a  Latah County  Commissioner?  PLEASE remember that one at the  
poles.



On May 23, 2010, at 11:30 AM, Bill London wrote:

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