McDonnell donor Williams offered free flights to Florida

State health officials say they turned down the product-promotion excursions.

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Michael Mart | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Jonnie Williams Sr., a corporate executive whose gifts to Gov. Bob McDonnell and his family are under public scrutiny, offered a free flight to Florida for top Virginia health officials to evaluate research involving a dietary supplement produced by his company, Star Scientific Inc.

Secretary of Health and Human Resources William Hazel Jr. said he declined the trip offer, made nearly three years ago, for a flight to visit the Roskamp Institute, a research organization in Sarasota, Fla., that has worked with Star on potential application of its products for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

Hazel said Williams asked him to extend the invitation to then-Health Commissioner Karen Remley, who the secretary said also declined. In an interview Wednesday, Remley said she has never spoken with Williams and did not recall being asked to meet with him or to visit the Roskamp Institute during her time as commissioner.

The invitation was among a series of attempts by Williams to bring his company’s products to the attention of state health officials. The efforts didn’t win any special favors, but they have caught the eye of investigators trying to determine whether Williams received anything in return for payments to McDonnell and his family now estimated to total at least $145,000.

This week, the reported total that McDonnell and his family had accepted in cash from Williams rose by $120,000 — including $70,000 in loans related to high-dollar beach rental properties the governor owns.

The loans and a separate $50,000 check to first lady Maureen McDonnell — first reported by The Washington Post and confirmed Wednesday by the Richmond Times-Dispatch — are part of federal and state investigations into gifts the governor received and his relationship with Williams. The Star CEO is a significant McDonnell donor.

McDonnell and his staff have said repeatedly that Williams and his company have not received any preferential treatment from the state.

Williams’ lawyer, former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, declined to comment on the invitation or other meetings by his client with state health officials.

Williams suggested the Florida trip during or shortly after a meeting with Hazel in the secretary’s office on Nov. 4, 2010, to talk about Star’s development of a product called Anatabloc, an anti-inflammatory dietary supplement that could be used to treat a variety of medical conditions.

The meeting, requested by the governor’s office, was “a fairly normal meeting with someone who wants to make us aware of a product,” said Hazel, who said Williams did not ask for favors or receive any.

Several months later, Hazel said the governor’s office asked that someone from the secretary’s office meet with Williams at the Executive Mansion. The secretary dispatched a policy aide, but said nothing came from the meeting.

Hazel said it never was clear to him what Williams wanted the state to do, other than facilitate communications with potential medical researchers at the University of Virginia.

Williams’ company ultimately provided grants to researchers at UVa and Virginia Commonwealth University during a luncheon meeting at the Executive Mansion to launch the marketing of Star’s Anatabloc dietary supplement. The luncheon on Aug. 30, 2011, was hosted by the first lady and attended by the governor.

Meetings between state officials and vendors are not unusual, Hazel and other state officials say. Nor is it unusual for the governor’s office or lobbyists to ask state staff for audiences to hear presentations by people seeking opportunities to sell their products.

But Williams’ repeated attempts to meet with state officials about his product are part of an investigation into gifts and loans the executive gave to the governor, first lady Maureen McDonnell and their children, according to sources close to the investigation.

Those gifts include $15,000 to the governor’s daughter, Cailin, to pay for catering at her Executive Mansion wedding reception in 2011; $15,000 in luxury clothing for Maureen McDonnell, who has been a public advocate for Anatabloc; $6,500 for a Rolex watch she gave her husband as a Christmas gift; and loans of $70,000 to a corporation McDonnell owns with his sister and a $50,000 check to the first lady. The Washington Post has reported that Williams also gave $10,000 to another McDonnell daughter, Jeanine, in December to help defray the cost of her wedding this May.

The governor disclosed none of those gifts on his statements of economic interests because state law doesn’t require it. He has disclosed more than $9,500 in other gifts from Williams, including more than $7,300 in airfare, lodging and meals provided by Star for a trip to Massachusetts in 2012.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican nominee for governor, on Wednesday put some distance between himself and McDonnell.

“What we’ve all been seeing is very painful for Virginia, and it’s completely inconsistent with Virginia’s very reserved traditions,” Cuccinelli said in a statement released by his campaign.

Monday, August 12, 2013