PAY DIRT

Interior Official Steered Contracts to Longtime Friend and Employer

IG report says National Invasive Species Council director shared procurement info with pal who let her crash at his place rent-free.

Welcome to Pay Dirt—exclusive reporting and research from The Daily Beast’s Lachlan Markay on corruption, campaign finance, and influence-peddling in the nation’s capital. For Beast Inside members only.

A senior federal official illicitly steered a federal contract to a friend and former employer in whose Washington, D.C. home she was staying rent-free, according to a new federal watchdog report.

The Interior Department’s inspector general faulted Jamie Reaser, the executive director of the department’s National Invasive Species Council, with violating ethics and procurement rules. Reaser, the IG wrote, shared “sensitive procurement information” with her friend, who is not named in the report, and instructed Interior officials to steer the $20,000 contract to him. Reaser attempted to land him an additional $25,000 contract months later, but the payment was never issued.

The IG surveilled the friend’s D.C. residence and observed Reaser staying the night on multiple occasions. She confirmed that she frequently crashed at his residence without paying rent. The friend told the IG that they’ve known each other for nearly 20 years, and that the friend, in his role at a trade association from 2006 to 2012, frequently hired Reaser’s consulting firm.

You can read the full IG report here.

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