PMA Group

The PMA Group is a defunct lobbying firm based in Washington D.C. It was founded and owned by ex-House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense staffer Paul Magliocchetti. The firm's annual lobbying income climbed steadily to its 2006 peak at $16,060,000. In November 2008 the PMA Group's offices were raided by the FBI. The subsequent investigation into illegal pay to play activities has led to the resignation of five of its senior lobbyists who started their own firm and brought clients with them. As a result, the firm ceased operations on March 31, 2009.

History and Personnel

The PMA Group was founded by Paul Magliocchetti in 1989. For a decade, Magliocchetti worked as a senior staffer on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee under its chairman, U.S. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA). In September 2007, the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) ranked Murtha, a congressman for thirty-six years, one of the twenty-two "most corrupt" members of Congress, due to "alleged ethics violations stemming “from abuse of his position on the subcommittee to benefit the lobbying firm of a former long-term staffer and for threatening to block earmarks of other members for political purposes." Since Magliocchetti's departure from the defense subcommmittee, PMA and its clients have established themselves as "major contributors to Murtha's campaign committee," donating well over $200,000 to the 2002, 2004, and 2006 campaign cycles, for a total of $2.37 million.

Consequently, PMA's clients have received notable benefits from Murtha's earmarks. In 2006, for example, PMA clients were given "at least 60 earmarks totaling $95.1 million." Other congressmen contacted by PMA included Pete Visclosky and Jim Moran. In 2007 and 2008, Murtha, Visclosky, and Moran directed $137 million in government purchasing to PMA's clients. PMA's clients donated $1.36 million to Visclosky and $997,348 to Moran over the past ten years.

On or around November 25, 2008 FBI agents raided PMA's offices and removed records of the firm's political action committee and files from some of its employees. According to the Washington Times, the FBI is probing the appointment by Magliocchetti of two people from Florida, a hotel wine steward and a hotel golf director, to PMA's board of directors, along with his daughter and a PMA accountant whom Magliocchetti married in 2008. All of them, as well as several relatives of Magliocchetti's, made large campaign donations, raising the question of whether Magliocchetti has illegally reimbursed them.

(source:wikipedia)

Magliocchetti sentenced for illegal campaign contributions

Former superlobbyist Paul Magliocchetti, once the master of getting defense earmarks for his clients from members of Congress, was sentenced Friday to 27 months in prison for making hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions.

U.S. District Court Judge T. S. Ellis III sentenced the 64-year-old Magliocchetti in federal court in Alexandria for devising what prosecutors called "one of the largest, most extensive and long-running campaign finance schemes ever."

"You made this choice for one reason: greed," said Judge Ellis, who also ordered Magliocchetti to spend two years on supervised release and pay $75,000 in fines.

The Justice Department had sought the maximum sentence of 57 months in prison for Magliocchetti, while his lawyers had asked for home confinement, probation and a $10,000 fine.

Sentencing guidelines called for a prison term of 46 to 57 months, but Magliocchetti's lawyers argued that he was physically and medically ill and had psychologist David Blackmon testify during the three-hour sentencing hearing that Magliocchetti suffers from the early stages of a cognitive impairment that would be aggravated by time in prison.

Judge Ellis did not seem persuaded to lessen the sentence because of the health arguments alone, but defense arguments that a lenient sentence would be more in line with other election cases did seem to resonate with him.

"I'm a bit dismayed that the government hasn't pursued all these cases with the same vigor," he said.

Magliocchetti pleaded guilty in September to violating federal campaign laws by using "straw donors" — friends, lobbyists and family members — to funnel $386,250 in illegal contributions to members of Congress, including key members of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee who provided millions of dollars in earmarks for his lobbying clients.

It came out in the hearing that prosecutors think the total of the illegal contributions may have been over $1 million, which the defense disputed.

Wearing a blue sports coat and looking weary, Magliocchetti read a prepared statement to the judge. Several of his family members and friends were present in the courtroom.

(source:washingtontimes.com)