http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/27/MNG9GFEMCC1.DTL
Ex-FDA chief's stock sales come to light
New York Times
Thursday, October 27, 2005
The former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration or his
wife sold shares in companies regulated by the agency in 2004,
according to financial disclosure forms.
The sales may have played a role in Lester Crawford's sudden
resignation from the agency last month after only two months as its
leader.
The latest disclosure form, signed by Crawford on June 28, shows that
he or his wife sold shares in 2004 in companies including the Sysco
Corp., a large food supplier; Kimberly-Clark and Teleflex Inc., which
have medical-products divisions; PepsiCo Inc. and Wendy's
International, which sell food products; Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which
includes pharmacies; and Embrex, an agriculture biotechnology company
where Crawford was once a board member.
The value of the sales varied from $1,001 to $100,000, according to
the form.
Embrex, Kimberly-Clark, PepsiCo and Wendy's are not on a form listing
the Crawfords' 2003 holdings, although that form states that the
Crawfords sold shares that year in Wendy's and Sysco valued at $1,001
to $15,000.
Crawford was quoted by Forbes.com last month as saying that he had
sold all of his interest in Embrex before he went to work for the FDA.
Another form listing Crawford's financial transactions in 2002 shows
that he or his wife sold shares in PepsiCo, Kimberly-Clark and Sysco
that year.
Each of those sales had values of $15,001 to $50,000.
The forms, which were recently released by the Department of Health
and Human Services under a Freedom of Information Act request and were
disclosed Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal, are the first documents
to confirm that financial disclosure issues may have been a factor in
Crawford's abrupt exit.
The Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee asked the
inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services to
examine the circumstances surrounding Crawford's resignation.
Crawford's wife, Catherine, has disputed reports that his resignation
was related to his not fully disclosing information about his finances
to the Senate.
But her brother, William Walker III, said she had told relatives that
an unintentional failure to disclose financial holdings led to the
resignation.
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And on and on and on
Harry
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