WASHINGTON-Nearly lost in the cacophony over the now-defunct law that unleashed Ken Starr on President Clinton is that Labor Secretary Alexis Herman remains under investigation by one of the few remaining independent counsels on allegations she used her White House clout to help-and profited from helping-Mobile Communications Holdings Inc. win a global satellite license from the Federal Communications Commission.
It has been more than a year since Attorney General Janet Reno requested an independent counsel to look into the Herman-MCHI matter. Portland, Maine, attorney Ralph I. Lancaster Jr., a Harvard Law School graduate, is overseeing the investigation. The independent counsel law expired midnight June 30.
In stark contrast to other high-profile, independent counsel probes that have dogged the Clinton administration, the investigation of alleged influence peddling by Herman and solicitation of more than $250,000 in illegal campaign contributions is unusually quiet.
Few clues have surfaced as to where Lancaster is headed. Lancaster’s office refused to return calls, even to answer status queries.
Herman, individually and through lawyers, previously denied any wrongdoing. Clinton has said he believes Herman is innocent.
For this story, Herman’s Labor Department spokesman referred all questions about the independent counsel probe to her personal attorney. Herman’s lawyer, Neil Eggleston, and friend Vanessa Weaver’s lawyer, E. Lawrence Barcella, did not return calls for comment.
Before joining the White House’s public liaison office in 1993, Herman sold her consulting business to friend Weaver for $88,000. Barcella previously denied any wrongdoing by Weaver.
The firm, International Investments and Business Development, subsequently became co-owned by Weaver and Laurent J. Yene, a businessman from Cameroon.
With Herman’s political rise, according to the Justice Department and other sources, Weaver would gain exceptional access to the White House.
It is alleged by Yene that Herman used her connections as a White House aide in 1996 (before becoming Labor secretary), to help MCHI obtain a global satellite license as part of a scheme in which she would receive 10 percent of all business she brought to her former consulting firm.
Before Weaver and Yene had a business and personal falling out, they were hired by Singapore businessman Abdul Rahman to drum up support for MCHI and its $1.1 billion Ellipso global satellite phone system.
Rahman runs a Singapore-based aircraft firm called Global Aero Design Centre Pte. Ltd. White House officials previously told Newsweek Herman had social contact with Rahman.
In 1997, Yene told the Justice Department he (Yene) gave Herman a cash-filled envelope and that Herman directed Weaver to secure Democratic campaign contributions from IIBD’s clients (including at least one who was a foreign national).
Yene, whose credibility and motives have been challenged by some, would later become Herman’s chief accuser.
In appointing a special prosecutor to examine the Herman-MCHI allegations last May, Reno sent out conflicting signals.
On the one hand, Reno said Justice up to then had “developed no evidence clearly demonstrating Secretary Herman’s involvement in these matters” and had “substantial evidence suggesting that she may not have been involved.”
At the same time, however, Reno said Justice’s preliminary investigation determined “a great deal of Yene’s story has been corroborated.”
Interviews and other information gathered by RCR during the past 18 months illustrate there was a big play to change hearts and minds of official Washington and land MCHI a license that the FCC in 1995 ruled it was unqualified to hold.
In 1996, Greg Simon, then domestic policy adviser to Vice President Gore, said Herman asked him to meet with MCHI representatives.
Simon, now a successful telecom lobbyist, said he subsequently met with an MCHI contingent that included Washington, D.C., lawyers Weldon Latham and Jill Stern. Simon said they complained to him that MCHI, a fledgling start-up, was forced to meet tougher financial qualifications than those required of larger, established satellite firms.
Simon insisted the White House did not try to influence or pressure the FCC on the MCHI application; he said he told MCHI representatives the White House does not weigh in on FCC licensing matters. Simon said he recommended they take their case to Congress and the FCC.
Simon did say the White House got a letter supporting MCHI’s application and forwarded it to the FCC. In addition, the Small Business Administration in April 1996, wrote FCC Commissioner Susan Ness to lend support to the MCHI application.
MCHI aggressively lobbied Congress and succeeded in getting several lawmakers to write letters on its behalf, a strategy that incited would-be competitors to accuse it of illegal lobbying.
William Kennard, then FCC general counsel before becoming chairman of the FCC in 1997, later cleared MCHI of any improper behavior.
The Justice Department said in the fall of 1996, Weaver and her sister donated $240,000 in campaign and other contributions, despite the two not having a history of making political donations.
“It is not plausible that Weaver would have set out in late 1996 (when the Clinton-Gore team was up for re-election) to make substantial campaign contributions to benefit the Democratic Party for the first time in her life without consulting with her close friend, a politically active Democrat,” Reno stated in May 1998.
Justice also determined an MCHI officer made a $10,000 Democratic contribution through Yene around the time of the Democratic National Convention in August 1996.
The previous year, in early 1995, the FCC granted big low-earth-orbit satellite applications from Motorola Inc., Loral Corp. and TRW Inc., but denied those from Washington, D.C.-based MCHI and Constellation Communications Inc.
However, the FCC gave MCHI and Constellation another year to shore up financing.
In July 1997, the FCC waived financial qualifications and granted MCHI a big LEO satellite license. The FCC’s International Bureau justified its action on grounds that spectrum had become available for MCHI because another satellite firm had withdrawn its application.
