WASHINGTON-Wireless Technology Research L.L.C. Chairman George Carlo urged a federal bankruptcy court to reject efforts to block the liquidation of his consulting firm, but he declined to address allegations that WTR audit committee Chairman Ronald Cavill approved fraudulent WTR invoices.
Patricia Carlo, wife and business partner of George Carlo, claims her husband and top associates stole money as part of a scheme to drive Health and Environmental Sciences Group Ltd. into the ground. She’s opposed to George Carlo’s filing for Chapter 7 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia, arguing he is trying to use bankruptcy protection to avoid lawsuits against him.
Patricia Carlo alleges George Carlo improperly spent HES money on close friends and associates for travel, vacations, pleasure boats, country club dues and sporting events.
George Carlo denies any wrongdoing, saying the allegations are an attempt to extract a favorable divorce settlement.
The audit accusations accompany the close of a six-year, $27 million WTR program. The question of how WTR money was spent has become as controversial as some of his scientific findings.
Cavill has not returned calls for comment.
The other two members of the WTR audit committee are Lowell McAdam, chief executive officer of PrimeCo Personal Communications, and Dr. James T. Sykes, honorary associate fellow of preventative medicine at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
“He (McAdam) has been only recently appointed to WTR (audit committee) and he does not have any personal information to add. But it’s his understanding that Deloitte and Touche L.L.P. and KPMG have both issued clean audit reports saying all expenses associated with the project were necessary and appropriate,” said Catarina Wylie, director of corporate communications at PrimeCo.
Wylie said McAdam was appointed in June as CTIA’s representative on the WTR audit committee.
Sykes is described as the independent WTR member, who was agreed to by WTR and CTIA. Sykes also is a past chairman of the National Council on the Aging Inc.
Cavill is said to be hand-picked by Carlo. He is president of Wheat Ridge, Colo.-based Cavill and Co., and currently serves as treasurer of NCOA.
CTIA said carriers and manufacturers that underwrote WTR have agreed in principle to continue paying for more mobile phone-cancer research. But this time around, the trade group said it will take its cue from the Food and Drug Administration.
