Bonner & Associates Paid Bonus to Letter Forger Before Firing Him

Brendan DeMelle DeSmog
on

Talking Points Memo has obtained a copy of the letter sent to Congressional investigators by Steven R. Ross, an Akin Gump attorney working to defend his client Bonner & Associates, the D.C. public relations firm embroiled in an embarrassing scandal over forged letters sent from its offices to at least three Democratic lawmakers.ย  The forged letters claimed to represent opposition to the Waxman-Markey climate and energy legislation from nine different groups, including senior citizensโ€™ organizations, Hispanic and womenโ€™s advocacy groups, and the NAACP.

According to the letter from Ross to Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), the Bonner employee who forged the letters received a bonus payment for his โ€œhard work,โ€ four days before the firm fired him after learning the letters wereย forgeries.

As Talking Points Memo mentions, the admission of this activity demonstrates โ€œthe dangers of Bonnerโ€™s business method,โ€ in which employees are incentivized to generate as many letters as possible, โ€œmaking fraud all but inevitable.โ€

Ross confirms as much, noting in the letter that (pg 5):
โ€œThe vast majority of the individuals hired to generate grassroots or โ€˜grasstopsโ€™ are temporary employees.โ€

Ross writes (pg 6):
Due to the extremely short duration of this project, on Tuesday, June 16, 2009, an incentive program was announced to encourage and reward hard work. Compensation for temporary employees is not based on the amount of letters generated. However, temporary employees could earn a small bonus payment for additional letters generated within that employeeโ€™s assigned district. It should be noted that the fired employee provided five fabricated letters on his first day of work, June 12, 2009, before the incentive program was even announced. Prior to the discovery of his fraudulent activity, since it ha appeared that the fired employee met the requirements of the incentive program, he was paid a bonus on Friday, June 19, 2009.

Ross stated earlier in the letter that โ€œthis incident, whatever itsโ€™ [sic] motivation, was an anomaly in the lengthy and honorable operation of this business.โ€ โ€ฆ โ€œโ€ฆfor over twenty-five years, B&A has been recognized for its professionalism and integrity in the fields of grassroots and โ€˜grasstopsโ€™ organizing.โ€

โ€œLengthy and honorableโ€ is an interesting way to describe Bonnerโ€™s history of Astroturfing, the practice of hiring P.R. firms like B&A to create the appearance of support for an issue, but is in fact more aptly described as โ€œgrassroots forย sale.โ€

Brendan DeMelle DeSmog
Brendan is Executive Director of DeSmog. He is also a freelance writer and researcher specializing in media, politics, climate change and energy. His work has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Huffington Post, Grist, The Washington Times and other outlets.

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