Kazeminy wanted direct payments to Coleman!

From Politico’s The Crypt:

Lawsuit: Pal tried to steer cash to Coleman first

We just received a PDF of the second lawsuit filed against Norm Coleman pal Nasser Kazeminy, who allegedly steered $75,000 to a Minnesota insurance company that employs Coleman wife.

Much of the new material echoes allegations made by its former CEO Paul McKim in a previous lawsuit filed in Texas.

Still, there are a couple of new nuggets in the Nov. 3 complaint in Delaware by investors in Kazeminy-controlled Deep Marine Technology.

The Texas lawsuit quotes Kazeminy saying he needed to get cash to Coleman because “U.S. Senators don’t make [expletive].”

But the second lawsuit alleges — and it’s breathtakingly stupid if true — that Kazeminy at first ordered DMT execs to pay Coleman directly. 

“Our clients were advised that Mr. Kazeminy first sought to have DMT make quarterly cash payments of $25,000 to Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota,” writes plaintiff’s attorney Anthony Paduano, citing a “confidential” informant.

Another new allegation is that the payments made to Laurie Coleman’s firm, the Hays Company, weren’t needed because DMT, which services offshore oil platforms and port facilities, already used Aon for its insurance.

“This was a cheap, sleazy, false story before the election and it’s a cheap, sleazy, false story now,” said Coleman spokesman Mark Drake.

The Coleman campaign has accused Franken of pushing the suits. Coleman leads Franken by about 200 votes with a nail-biter recount looming.

Yay Norm! Just keep calling everyone else bad names — that’ll convince everyone you’re on the up and up! But I’m not sure I understand this part: “The Coleman campaign has accused Franken of pushing the suits.” ?? I thought Nasser Kazeminy bought Norm his suits? Are the Coleman people now accusing Al Franken of buying Norman “leave my wife out of this unless you’ve got an envelope stuffed with cash” Coleman’s suits? 

Apparently anyone can buy Norman a suit. 

The original suitmeister, Nasser Kazeminy, has denied all allegations. Unfortunately I don’t think you have to be under oath when you tell the Associated Press you’re innocent.

TPM Muckraker has made good their promise to investigate further and Zachary Roth has found that the Hays Companies and the Coleman’s aren’t exactly telling the same story when it comes to explaining Laurie Coleman’s relationship with Hays.

The suit claims that Laurie Coleman received $75,000 from Hays, without performing legitimate work for the company, and that these payments were an effort by Kazeminy to get money to Norm Coleman.

The senator — who faces a recount in his reelection race against Democrat Al Franken — has denied the allegations. And Hays Companies, in a statement issued after the suit was made public, called them “libelous and defamatory.”

But are the two on different pages as to the nature of Laurie Coleman’s relationship with Hays?

In that statement, Hays declared that Laurie Coleman “has been an Independent Contractor for Hays Companies since 2006,” without elaborating as to the nature of her work for Hays.

But on his Senate disclosure forms for 2006 and 2007, Norm Coleman explicitly lists the type of income that his wife received from Hays as “salary” — which by definition would render Laurie Coleman an employee, rather than an independent contractor.

Of course, Norm Coleman may simply have been imprecise in filling out the disclosure form and used “salary” as shorthand for compensation. But it’s a discrepancy that would be worth resolving. 

Over a twelve-year period I wrote over 7,000 resumes, but very few of them involved the insurance industry, a field where people go to work for one employer until they retire. Which makes it all the more incredible that Hays Companies would pay $75,000 to an outside contractor who possesses absolutely zero special knowledge of their industry.

Up until this brouhaha over who dresses our senior Senator sprang up, I and just about everyone else in Minnesota assumed Laurie Coleman actually reported to an actual office every day. I know of absolutely no job function within the insurance industry not involving sales that could be performed on an outsourced basis by a neophyte licensed agent. In fact, I’ve never heard of anything like the gig Laurie Coleman had with Hays Companies. 

What in the hell could an unemployed actress do for an insurance company that would justify $100k over two years (the amount Laurie Coleman would have received had DMT not blown the whistle on Kazeminy’s scam)?

Norm’s right. This lawsuit has nothing to do with his wife and family. This lawsuit is about a crooked plot to funnel money to Norman Bertram Coleman. The same Norman Bertram Coleman who apparently figured it was in his best interest to funnel that money through his wife Laurie. The same Norman Bertram Coleman who keeps yelling at everyone to leave his family out of this.

If you didn’t click the Tild link I posted over the weekend, well, you should.

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Hugh “benchmarks” Hewitt.

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Truth keeps leaking out now that the Bushies are working on their resumes and not guarding the chicken coop. It turns out that Dick Thornburgh’s CBS investigation wasn’t as slapdash as we thought. Thornburgh hit the White House up with eight ass-kicking questions. He got zero responses. From Eric Boehlert, here are the questions.

    (1) Was there a waiting list to become a pilot of the Texas Air National Guard at the time you entered?

    (2) Do you recall Colonel Killian being dissatisfied in any way about your National Guard service in 1972 and 1973?

    (3) Were you ever ordered to take a physical in May 1972 or at any other time?

    (4) Did Colonel Killian say in May 1972 that you could do Equivalent Training for three months or transfer?

    (5) Do you recall being suspended from flight status on or about August 1, 1972? If so, how was that suspension communicated to you?

    (6) Why were you suspended from flight status? Was there a reason other than not taking a physical?

    (7) Describe your communications with Colonel Killian about a transfer to Alabama in 1972.

    (8) Did Colonel Killian or anyone else ever inform you that Colonel Killian was being pressured in any way about your status by a superior officer?

I’ll bet Ass®ocket told the White House that the questions had been forged based on Internet scrutiny of the fonts used by Thornburgh.

Wired says that January 20th will be no joke for Bush. Seymour Hersh has already said that Bush admin leakers galore are waiting to talk to him once Bush is out of office. Wired says, no kidding.

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Hard to believe, but apparently Chuck Norris is an even bigger asshole than we realized. Click this link to see what Chuck N’s been emailing to his friends.

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So long as Saxby Chambliss serves in the U.S. Senate, we cannot pretend to be a fair or just nation with liberty, justice and voting rights for all.

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Jimmy Carl Black, R.I.P.

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