Russian Group Had $97M Deal With U.S. Missile Defense AgencyThe other day we told you about the Russian not-for-profit group that was giving undisclosed payments to the wife of former Rep. Curt Weldon’s chief of staff.
Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican who lost his reelection bid in 2006, had sought federal grants for International Exchange Group, which was run by a Russian with ties to the Kremlin. IEG was involved in “promoting U.S.-Russia business exchange, including nonproliferation issues.”
IEG popped up again this week. Over at Wired Sharon Weinberger, who recently co-wrote a book about nuclear weapons, pointed out another connection the group had to the U.S. government.
IEG signed a deal with the U.S. military’s Missile Defense Agency back in 2004 promising to provide “Russian radar data” for use with the U.S. missile defense’s early warning system.
From Wired:
But the entire structure of IEG was suspect, and smacked of conflict of interest: why should the U.S. government have to pay an openly Kremlin-linked nonprofit in order to ensure government cooperation?
It didn’t pass the smell test with upper-level decision makers at the Pentagon, who halted the 2004 deal at the last minute.
Weldon’s connection here is unclear. But he has promoted the Russian group and he’s also a longtime supporter for the Defense Missile Agency.
Weldon has been under federal investigation for a couple of years concerning his actions on behalf of a natural-gas company, Itera International Energy LLC, which has longstanding connections to alleged Russian organized-crime figures. Weldon just dumped his last $80,000 in campaign money into his legal defense fund.
And the Wall Street Journal reported this week, the probe of Weldon may be “a broader U.S. Justice Department probe into what officials suspect are efforts by Russian-backed firms to gain influence or gather information in Washington.”