October 11, 2006

Bankruptcy Trustee Finds Possible Corruption in Management of Company By One of Gov. Bredesen's Big Financial Backers

The Tennessean reports that a bankruptcy court trustee looking over the books of 1Point Solutions and its owner, Barry Stokes - a major donor to Gov. Phil Bredesen's campaigns and to the Tennessee Democratic Party - is finding plenty of evidence of possible corruption. The bankruptcy court trustee said yesterday that Stokes "may have misspent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his clients' money, sending at least $100,000 to his father-in-law's trust fund and a smaller sum to a Tokyo art dealer."

Stokes is being called a flight risk after the bankruptcy court trustee found he had downloaded a book, "How to Change Your Identity," to his computer.

The Tennessee Republican Party has called on the Bredesen campaign and the Tennessee Democratic Party to return the tens of thousands of dollars Stokes gave, but that appears unlikely: Bredesen's current campaign treasurer previously lobbied the administration on behalf of 1Point Solutions. And the Bredesen campaign still lists stokes as one of "more than 500 leading Tennessee business owners" who have endorsed Bredesen. And attorney Bryon Trauger, one of Bredesen's closest friends and influential backers over the years, says that a law partner of his once handled a legal matter for Stokes. Trauger didn't say which law partner, but his current law partner is Bob Tuke, the attack-dog chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party who, before he was elected state party chairman in 2005, spent many years as a very successful fundraiser for the Tennessee Democratic Party.

Tuke's law firm takes money from clients who do business with the state. As a name partner in the firm, Tuke very likely shares in that income.

It could have been another of Trauger's law partners who represented Stokes, of course, but that's all somewhat beside the point, which is that the Tuke-lead Tennessee Democratic Party and the Bredesen campaign are both partially funded with what appears to be stolen money.

Until they return the money - more than $55,000 since 2001 - some of those Bredesen and Tennessee Democratic Party ads you're seeing on TV promoting the re-election of a governor whose personal net worth is estimated at somewhere around $200 million are financed by funds possibly stolen from the retirement funds of people who live paycheck to paycheck.