October 24, 2017
Puerto Rico has agreed to pay a reported $300 million for the restoration of its power grid to a tiny utility company which is primarily financed by a private equity firm founded and run by a man who contributed large sums of money to President Trump, an investigation conducted by The Daily Beast has found.
October 24, 2017
Puerto Rico has agreed to pay a reported $300 million for the restoration of its power grid to a tiny utility company which is primarily financed by a private equity firm founded and run by a man who contributed large sums of money to President Trump, an investigation conducted by The Daily Beast has found.
Whitefish Energy Holdings, which had a reported staff of only two full-time employees when Hurricane Maria touched down, appears ill-equipped to handle the daunting task of restoring electricity to Puerto Rico’s over 3 million residents.
Much larger utilities are more commonly used following natural disasters on the scale of Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island last month.
The private equity firm that finances Whitefish, HBC Investments, was founded by Joe Colonnetta, who serves as its general partner.
FEC data compiled by The Daily Beast shows that Colonnetta contributed $20,000 to the “Trump Victory” PAC during the general election, $27,000 to Trump’s primary election campaign (then the maximum amount permitted), $27,000 to Trump’s general election campaign (also the maximum), and a total of $30,700 to the Republican National Committee in 2016 alone.
Colonnetta’s wife, Kimberly, is no stranger to Republican politics either; shortly after Trump’s victory she gave $33,400 to the Republican National Committee, the maximum contribution permitted for party committees in 2016.
Joe Colonnetta is not the only Republican connection to the controversial Whitefish contract. On Monday, The Washington Post reported that Whitefish’s CEO, Andy Techmanski, is friends with Trump administration Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Moreover, Whitefish is located in Zinke’s hometown of Whitefish, Monatana.
Luis Vega-Ramos, Member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives, told The Daily Beast, “Whitefish’s most important expertise or assets seems to have been… having the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, as their former Congressman and current ally and having the wisdom to retain the services of key people close to the governor [of Puerto Rico].”
Zinke isn’t the only member of the Trump administration with a connection to the Whitefish contract. In addition to the Colonnettas’ contributions to Trump’s presidential campaign, Kimberly Colonnetta’s Facebook page contains a photo of her with Ben Carson, Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban development. Another photo appears to show Kimberly Colonnetta with Trump’s Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Both photos were posted the week of Trump’s inauguration.
Courtesy/Source: The Daily Beast
