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Gore's campaign manager hasn't repaid loan, lawyer says
October 5, 1999 WASHINGTON -- The lawyer for Vice President Al Gore's campaign chairman has reversed himself and says his client, Tony Coelho, has not fully repaid a $300,000 loan cited in a highly critical State Department report. State Department investigators have said taxpayers may be liable for any unpaid balance on the personal loan Coelho took out while commissioner general for the U.S. pavilion at the "Expo98" fair in Lisbon, Portugal. The loan was issued by a Portuguese bank. Stanley Brand, Coelho's lawyer, said Monday his client still owes about $100,000 but the debt is "in the process of being paid off." Brand did not say when the loan would be fully repaid. On Saturday, Brand said the entire loan was paid off. "This is not a United States government transaction," he said. "There's no liability on the part of any government agency to pay a personal loan. There never was an exposure to the United States. I don't know how there could be." But the State Department inspector general, in a report on the 1998 fair, criticized Coelho's loan -- obtained from a Portuguese bank so the private Luso-American Wave Foundation could construct a memorial wall in the shape of a wave near the site of the pavilion. The sculpture is still there, as a memorial to Portuguese emigrants to the United States. Coelho announced the formation of the Luso-American Wave Foundation on April 22, 1998, a month before the fair opened. The inspector general's report, which surfaced this past weekend, said, "Obligations of a private foundation were recorded on the U.S. pavilion's financial records, and most staff wore buttons promoting this foundation during working hours although this organization was not officially connected to the pavilion." The report said the United States Information Agency, whose operations are now part of the State Department, "may be responsible for the repayment" if the foundation "does not raise sufficient funds to pay it back." The Center for Public Integrity, which released the inspector general's report and expanded on its findings, said Monday it has learned that Coelho used government employees and resources to raise money to repay the personal loan. The report criticized Coelho for intermingling his activities as the commissioner general for the fair with activities and obligations of the private foundation. The center reported that the Luso-American Wave Foundation was no more than a toll-free telephone number and a mailing address within the offices of a Washington lobbying firm. The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
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MORE STORIES:Tuesday, October 5, 1999
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