That's our conclusion from a brief investigation of political donations by the troubled cable operator Adelphia Communications (ADELQ:OTC BB - news - commentary - research - analysis), now operating under bankruptcy protection.
It all began when we went to the Web site www.opensecrets.org, operated by the Center for Responsive Politics watchdog organization. On the site, which tracks political spending as reported to the Federal Election Commission, we plugged in "Adelphia Communications" just to see what would pop up.
Well, here's what we found: Between July 1999 and April 2001, Adelphia made at least $109,000 in federal political donations, nearly 90% of that to Republicans.
Which got us thinking about the propriety of it all.
You see, when former Adelphia CEO John Rigas and other executives at the company were arrested last week, the government accused management and the Rigas family of a variety of misdeeds -- stuff like understating its debt to the public, submitting fraudulent financials to lenders, borrowing company planes for personal use and using company apartments rent-free. |
