The Chicago Tribune today features an investigation into how Rudy Giuliani’s business interests have, in at least one case, drawn him into some pretty shady associations — for instance, “a complex partnership with the family of a controversial Hong Kong billionaire who has ties to the regime of North Korea’s Kim Jong Il and has been linked to international organized crime by the U.S. government.”
After his term as mayor ended in 2001 (despite his own best efforts), Rudy founded Giuliani Partners, a “management consulting and security consulting business.” As the Tribune article explains, the ex-mayor’s campaign has thus far refused to fully disclose the firm’s client list, or even to say whether or not it has asked its clients to waive confidentiality given Giuliani’s presidential run. As a result, much of Giuliani Partners’ work remains “in the shadows.” But one venture the Tribune’s reporters do know about is the failed attempt by Las Vegas casino magnate Mark Advent to build a major casino and resort in Singapore. Advent hired Giuliani’s company to do his security consulting, but while the firm vetted the project’s American partners, it did not do the same for outside investors. Unfortunately, those investors included companies connected to Stanley Ho, a notorious Chinese gambling tycoon with ties to the North Korean regime and, the FBI believes, organized crime. The deal fell apart — possibly, one analysts suggests, because the Singaporean government would as a matter of policy avoid any involvement with Ho.
It’s interesting to see Rudy’s name come up again in conjunction with organized crime. No one, of course, is even remotely suggesting that Giuliani himself has any ties to it. But, as in the Kerik case, here was a situation where it was Giuliani’s job to keep shady figures away. And here again, he failed to do so. Whether that was due to lack of will or competence almost doesn’t matter.
As the article points out, Giuliani’s trajectory from politics to business is rather unusual at the level of a presidential campaign — usually rich candidates have made their money before running for office. From my perspective here in New York, though, it looks a little more familiar. We call it the revolving door — politicians leave office and benefit financially from all those who want to cash in on their connections. It’s always a shady kind of thing, because it smacks of an indifference to the notion that the public good should be elevated over private interests. I don’t think that Rudy Giuliani is capable of defending the public good against the intrusion of private interests. Again, whether that’s a factor of incompetence or indifference really doesn’t matter.
