| Posted by GSMOT(tm) ® , Sep 04,2003,10:17 | MetroBlab |
Criminal record prompts review of UT contract
By RICHARD POWELSON AND TOM HUMPHREY, [email protected], [email protected]
September 4, 2003
The University of Tennessee said Wednesday it is re-evaluating a $100,000 contract with a Washington lobbying company after learning that its chairman has a criminal background.
The contract by UT's Health Sciences Center in Memphis with American Defense International Inc. lists four lobbyists, including Van D. Hipp Jr., company chairman. He settled 14 felony charges in 1997 alleging fraud by a phone-sex provider by pleading guilty to seven misdemeanor election violations from his 1994 congressional campaign, officials said Wednesday.
Hipp, former Republican Party chairman in South Carolina, was sentenced to five years probation, including three months of house arrest and electronic monitoring, a $5,000 fine and 200 hours of community service, said Scott Schools of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charleston, S.C. If he had been convicted of and sentenced consecutively for the original felony charges, he could have faced a maximum punishment of life in prison.
More at http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_2231856,00.html