As Joe Biden and his ragtag team of liberal Democrat has-beens are hanging Obama’s long-ignored portrait on the WH wall, storms are already starting to brew, and one of them packing gale-force winds.
A vaccine maker who claimed to be speeding down the Operation Warp Speed highway, sort of overstepped its legal bounds by lying about their actual involvement. The company, now under investigation for misrepresentation, put lobbyist Jeff Ricchetti on retainer to help them squeeze out of this fix.
So what you might ask. Never heard of the guy. Well, you will. Ricchettis’s brother will soon assume the role of being the top White House counselor to the one and, thank God, only, Mr. Joe Biden. What’s that awful stench?
The lobbyist, Jeff Ricchetti, founded his firm, Vaxart, a California-based biotechnology developer, with his kid bro Steve, hence, grandpa Joe’s incoming top advisor. The firm specializes in the development of new oral vaccines.
Just this past November when Jeffy boy registered as a lobbyist for his own company, it eliminated his previous habit of having to scale walls. He could now waltz right in and start shaking hands. You know. Influence people.
Jeff Ricchetti plans on lobbying Congress on behalf of his own company on “Legislative and regulatory policies regarding oral vaccine development and funding.” How convenient.
Here’s the grimy dirt on Vaxart. In October, just one month prior to Ricchetti registering as a lobbyist, federal prosecutors in California handed the company a serious subpoena. The subpoena alleges that Vaxart had participated in a scheme to rake in piles of loot from misled investors concerning their involvement with Operation Warp Speed.
Ricchetti is making the bogus claim that Vaxart had been hand-picked by the federal government in June to try out an oral vaccine on some of their lab-monkeys. But first things first. Vaxart had barely caught its breath before making a public announcement that shot its stock through the roof of Wall Street.
Armistice Capital, the investment firm owning a giant stake in Vaxart, seized the planned timing by selling off the company’s shares while they were ringing the register at an all-time high. As reported by the New York Times, the firm booked a tidy profit of $200 million, all thanks to Operation Warp Speed and your hard-earned tax money.
The Department of Health and Human Services said Vaxart’s claims are not as they appear. Ricchetti’s lobbying disclosure skips over nearly everything the company is being investigated about.
First, Vaxarts participation in Operation Warp Speed was limited. They weren’t pioneering anything as their announcement had indicated. Secondly, nowhere in his disclosure does it reveal that his company is under current investigation.
In August, Vaxart hired the high-powered firm of Jeffrey J. Kimbell and Associates to bug the crap out of Congress and the White House concerning vaccine development issues.
The Ricchetti brothers co-founded Vaxart in 2001. Steve was jobless after leaving the employ of the Bill Clinton administration. In his previous role as deputy chief of staff, he had played a major role in the passage of the Clinton administration’s bumbled trade deal with Communist China.
Ricchetti Incorporated, namely Jeff, also registered in August to lobby for a California-based producer of semiconductor materials called Applied Materials. With brother Steve already whispering in Biden’s old hairy ears, why not also stick his liberal nose into U.S./China trade policies. He plans on doing exactly that by lobbying the WH and any other executive agency he can worm his way into.
Jeff Ricchetti is a busy guy these days with avoiding lawsuits, sweating over investigations, and it would seem, attempting to take the same political route as his brother by riding his coattails.
The most frightening thing about all of this is that under the Biden administration, the investigation will be dropped with nary another word spoken, as the brothers gain more power than they should ever be entrusted with. As for the shafted investors? Better luck next time. Welcome to Biden-World.
