WASHINGTON — Pentagon adviser Richard Perle co-authored an opinion piece this summer praising a Pentagon plan to lease tanker aircraft — which had the potential to steer billions of dollars to the Boeing Co. — 16 months after Boeing committed to invest $20 million with a venture capital firm n which Perle was a principal.
"It takes a special government green eyeshade mentality to miss the urgency of the tanker requirement," Perle and a co-author wrote in the Aug. 14 article in The Wall Street Journal. The piece did not mention Boeing by name or Perle’s firm — Trireme Partners — and its business relationship with the giant defense contractor.
Boeing Thursday said the company briefed Perle on the tanker issue on July 14. Boeing said it "had no hand in writing the document, nor did we assist in placing it."
In March, Perle resigned as chairman of the Defense Policy Board after press accounts raised questions about his actions on behalf of Global Crossing and Loral. He remains a member of the policy board, a group of former government officials and others that advise the Pentagon.
The Financial Times Thursday night on its Web site quoted Perle as saying, "I never discussed the tanker issue or my views on the tanker issue with anyone at Boeing that had anything to do with Trireme."
The Pentagon put the $17 billion Boeing tanker deal on hold this week while its inspector general investigates whether the procurement process was handled properly. The company last week fired two executives, including a former Air Force procurement official, for allegedly violating company policies. Amid the controversy, Boeing chief executive Philip Condit resigned Monday.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld named Perle to the policy board in 2001. Later that year, Trireme Partners, a venture fund, was set up in Delaware.
Trireme Partners first sought an investment from Boeing in February 2002, and the company decided to invest $20 million two months later, Boeing said in a written statement this week. To date, it has advanced $2 million to the fund, the statement said.
Gerald Hillman, another principal, represented Trireme, and Perle was not involved in the discussions to obtain the Boeing investment, Boeing said. Perle holds an equity stake in Trireme Associates LLC, which is the general partner of Trireme Partners and receives a share of its profits, according to documents Hollinger filed last month with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
"There’s no connection between these two matters," Hillman said Thursday night of Boeing’s investment with Trireme and Perle’s op-ed piece.
A memorandum Trireme gave Boeing describing the fund included brief biographies of the principals, including Perle and Hillman, Boeing said. It noted that Perle is "chairman of the Defense Policy Board and a consultant to the Department of Defense," Boeing said.
Boeing "also received a letter early in the process with Trireme that also mentioned that Richard Perle is (was) chairman of the DPB," Boeing said.
Trireme’s fund is one of 29 venture capital funds to which Boeing has committed a total of about $250 million, the aerospace company said.
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