Word: knighting
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Then his fortunes changed. In July 1992 Clinton tapped Gore to be his running mate, and Knight's career promptly took off. He took a leave from the firm to manage the vice- presidential campaign for Gore. After the election, he became deputy director of personnel for the transition, helping salt Gore loyalists throughout the federal bureaucracy and playing a role in the appointments of top officials like Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt, EPA Administrator Carol Browner and Assistant Energy Secretary Tom Grumbly...
...When Knight returned to his firm, the Gore connection paid off. His portfolio of clients bulged with companies wanting a leg up with Gore or his allies. Telecommunication firms lined up to see Hundt; environmental companies came with pleadings for Browner and Grumbly. In short order, Knight was the top-billing partner at the firm, routinely grossing a seven-figure sum. At a firm in which, as a former partner put it, "you eat what you kill"--that is, you pocket everything after deducting your expenses and a share of the firm's overhead--Knight had hit pay dirt...
...work for Molten Metal Technology, a Massachusetts environmental-technology company, hit the trifecta, bringing cash to the firm, funds to the Clinton-Gore campaign and special financial rewards to Knight. It was a dicey political mixture that landed him in the sights of not only the Justice Department but also Representative Tom Bliley's Commerce Committee and Senator Fred Thompson's Governmental Affairs Committee, which will take his deposition this week...
Molten, which is betting big money on an experimental process that is supposed to neutralize toxic wastes in a bath of red-hot iron, hired Knight just as he came off his stint as talent scout for the new Administration. Right away the company had big plans for him to help it pull the right levers with the government, according to an internal Molten memo. But Knight's role was larger than that of the traditional lobbyist, more like that of a corporate impresario. When the company needed credibility to build early capital, Knight arranged for Grum...
This served to enrich Knight even further. His consulting agreement with Molten was highly unusual and gave him more than the typical incentive to make his pitch. Along with a $7,000 monthly fee, Knight was given options to buy at least 40,000 shares of Molten, firm documents show. In an April 1996 letter awarding Knight more stock options as he was leaving to run the Clinton-Gore re-election bid, company president William Haney showed just how valuable he thought Knight would be to the company: "Our objective is to keep you...with us right up until...