Fergie's Tech Blog

Rudy's Firm Got $30 Million for Pimping Data-Miner

Noah Shachtman writes on Danger Room:

It was never exactly clear how Hank Asher, the database whiz and former cocaine smuggler, managed to get some of the government's highest-ranking officials to back MATRIX, his controversial info mining project. A 2004 Vanity Fair profile said that Florida governor Jeb Bush was Asher's "introducer" at a Roosevelt Room presentation that included in the audience Vice President Dick Cheney, FBI director Robert Mueller, Department of Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge. But the story didn't say how Asher was able to get the attention, in the first place.

Now, it appears, we have an answer. Rudy Guiliani hooked Asher up.

Time magazine reports that Guiliani Partners in December 2002 agreed to represent Asher's company, Seisint, for "$2 million a year, plus a percentage of revenue from company sales to government and corporate buyers."

posted by Fergie @ 12/13/2007 05:53:00 PM