Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez integrated an environmental awareness event with a campaign fundraiser

NY Post


Her new deal is all about the green, alright.
 
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held a 5k in Queens Saturday that she billed as “a Family Fun Run supporting U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal on the Saturday following Earth Day.”
 
But many of the 400 runners didn’t realize their $30 registration fees were going directly into the lawmaker’s campaign coffers.
 
“We’re getting together for our own health, for our planet’s health … and to fight for the Green New Deal together,” the freshman Democrat told the participants before they set off.
Environmentally conscious supporters — who jogged through Astoria Park alongside a beaming, strolling AOC — believed their money was going to help save the planet.
 
“It’s going to help raise awareness and educate people,” a female runner told The Post.
 
“I think it’s really for this particular New Green Deal,” said Brian Schwartz of Long Island. “No question.”
 
“It’s to help the environment. To support the Green New Deal,” another woman said. “It’s a good cause.”
 
A vaguely worded notices on AOC’s Facebook page — saying that the run would support “U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez & the Green New Deal” — worsened the confusion.
But the fine print on a third event-related website revealed the truth.
 
“Registration fees are contributions to AOC for Congress,” reads the legal disclosure on aoc5k.com, which lists the Federal Election Commission rules that donors must follow.
 
“It was a campaign fundraiser,” Ocasio-Cortez spokesman Corbin Trent confirmed.
 
The participants paid more than $11,000 all told.
 
Even kids as young as 3 became unknowing political donors — ponying up $20 fees to join a kids’ 1k.

 But by fudging the fact that those fees were actually campaign contributions, AOC may have enticed constituents into inadvertently breaking federal election laws.
 
Parents, for example, can’t contribute their own funds in a child’s name.

 Then there's this:

 Anthony Pappas, the 72-year-old Republican who ran against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in November, shadowed the freshman Democrat at an Astoria Park event Saturday – and had to be shooed away by cops when he got too close.
 
Pappas, a professor at St. John’s University, was distributing stapled copies of an eight-page manifesto about his grievances against the judicial system, including complaints about unfair sentencing and a lack of accountability for judges, and ranting to passersby.
 
Staffers blocked him from approaching Ocasio-Cortez as she took selfies with supporters at the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 5k “fun run.”
 
“I wanted to tell her about judicial immunity and judicial accountability,” Pappas told The Post, after two police officers guided him away from AOC and her group. She did not seem to acknowledge him.

All of this is extremely bad. Ocasio-Cortez is going to be a one-termer if she keeps up this elitist behavior. (That clip where she is walking with a baby looks like something out of VEEP). And the NYPD's treatment of the professor really shows how stupid and arbitrary the lengths to protect politicians from alleged threats on their lives are.

Her staff should especially know better too. Mr. Pappas is a constituent who the congresswoman represents in her district.

Mayor de Blasio illegally solicited developer donor money by himself for Campaign For One New York fund against advisement from aides

The City

Mayor Bill de Blasio violated conflict of interest rules after being warned repeatedly not to solicit donations from individuals actively seeking tax breaks, deed transfers and other favors from his administration, according to a Department of Investigation report obtained by THE CITY.

The finding followed a two-and-a-half year DOI probe that ended in October but was never made public. THE CITY secured the 15-page “closing memo” — which the DOI heavily censored — via the Freedom of Information Law.

During the probe, DOI investigators questioned de Blasio about warnings by both the city Conflict of Interest Board (COIB) and his own counsel. The mayor claimed he wasn’t aware of such warnings – and said he couldn’t recall any details of conversations he had with several developers who recounted his personal requests for checks.

The report reveals DOI substantiated the allegation that de Blasio sought checks for the now-defunct Campaign for One New York fund from individuals “who had or whose organization had a matter pending or about to be pending before any executive branch of the city.”

The nonprofit formed as de Blasio arrived at City Hall in 2014 and hired consultants to press for support for his pet programs, such as universal Pre-K and affordable housing.

The closing memo was heavily censored by DOI, which cited protecting the privacy of witnesses and not wanting to reveal unsubstantiated allegations. The entire section marked “Conclusion and Recommendations” was blacked out.

The revelation of the DOI conflict-of-interest finding comes as de Blasio toys with a run for the White House. The mayor told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer last week he has “not ruled it out,” and his advisors have made clear he intends to make up his mind soon.

The mayor’s office, which has had the DOI report since Friday morning, did not respond to detailed questions submitted by THE CITY Wednesday morning.

Instead, a spokesperson released a brief statement: “These questions are asked and answered. Fundraising for the now-defunct Campaign for One New York was thoroughly reviewed by multiple parties and it was determined there was no wrongdoing. It’s been said a million times: the Mayor acted lawfully and ethically.”

In its report, DOI questioned the competence of de Blasio’s system for vetting possible donors for conflicts, stating “how the system was overseen remained unclear, as did whether the vetting research was conducted thoroughly and completely.”

The report noted that “there does not appear to have been any particular individual who exercised supervision over the vetting process.” And it revealed aides couldn’t agree on who was supposed to be doing the vetting to avoid conflicts.

De Blasio, for example, told DOI his then-general counsel, Maya Wiley, and another aide “owned” the vetting process. But Wiley told DOI investigators she had “no significant involvement” in that process after issuing an April 2014 memo spelling out specific areas of conflict that would constitute a violation of city ethics rules.

Another unnamed aide told DOI that a colleague was responsible for vetting potential donors – but that colleague then “denied any significant role in the vetting process.” That aide “did not know who was responsible for overseeing the vetting process.”

The DOI inquiry began April 13, 2016, shortly after de Blasio shut down Campaign for One New York.

Investigators interviewed dozens of witnesses, including the mayor, multiple donors, attorneys and lobbyists who helped raise funds for Campaign for One New York, and public relations and political consultants hired by the mayor’s group: SKDK Knickerbocker, AKPD Message & Media, Berlin Rosen and Hilltop Public Solutions.

The investigation wasn’t formally closed until Oct. 22, 2018. Four weeks later, de Blasio fired DOI Commissioner Mark Peters

 Then there's this:

 Despite the agency’s censorship efforts, the report obtained by THE CITY provides the most extensive portrayal yet of de Blasio’s fundraising tactics as he sought out five- and six-figure checks for the Campaign for One New York.

The mayor set aside weekly “call times” in which he “walked around the block as he called potential donors on his cell phone.” By the summer of 2015, he was making six to 10 such calls each week. Aides would instruct him on which donors he could request money from. With some he’d simply seek “support,” and an aide would follow up soon after with a specific money request.

That visual I highlighted reminded me of the video where that homeless woman caught the Blaz doing his yoga exercises at the Park Slope Y where he daily wastes 4 hours of civic service time commuting with a police escort to and then to the City Hall. 

In a post I wrote on Impunity City, I thought the most interesting thing about that confrontation was not only that Ms. Adegusun brought up the fact that he broke his promise to house homeless people but that she caught him while he was holding a Blackberry. 

While she was politely trying to get through to him, he told her he was working out and it wasn't the time and place to discuss this issue. Even though he had enough time to text as she was speaking to him.

 For an exercise that takes concentration and discipline, why is he with diddling with his Blackberry and texting people. This gives the impression that he was still soliciting donors and doling favors.

As we all know now, he got up and speedwalked away.

No wonder he wears sneakers while doing yoga.

Jury still didn't buy the excuses of Skelos and son

From the NY Post:

Ex-Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos was convicted Tuesday on eight counts of bribery, extortion and conspiracy. The jury agreed he used his power to muscle companies into providing his son Adam (also convicted) with $300,000 worth of no-show and low-show jobs.

It was the second guilty verdict for the pair, whose earlier convictions were overturned based on a Supreme Court ruling that narrowed the definition of official corruption. And it took place next door to the courtroom where Alain Kaloyeros, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s economic-development czar, was convicted of bid-rigging just last week.

Since March, juries also have convicted Cuomo’s right-hand man, Joe Percoco, of soliciting and accepting bribes, as well as former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — Skelos’ fellow member of the “three men in a room” who controlled Albany — of corruptly abusing his office.

Looks like Albany’s swamp is finally being drained, one corrupt official at a time.

Though there was nothing new in the charges, the verdict was a fresh rebuke to the state capital’s culture of corruption — and its continued refusal to enact meaningful ethics reform.

It's all legal...technically

From Gotham Gazette:

When Rockland County Democratic Party Chair Kristen Zebrowski Stavisky fills out her annual state disclosure forms, she consults her husband for question six, which requires the listing of contracts held with a state or local agency held by the filer, filer’s spouse, or unemancipated child.

Evan Stavisky, a partner in the prominent Albany lobbying firm The Parkside Group, after checking with the firm’s lawyer, has told his wife that his company does not represent any government entities. So, for the past six years, Kristen has entered “none” for the question, according to the disclosure documents obtained from the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE).

At the same time, between 2010 and 2016, Parkside pulled in more than $1 million from representing quasi-public entities, including four foundations affiliated with city and state universities, three New York City-based public library systems, and a local economic development corporation, according to the lobbying firm’s disclosure filings that can be viewed on the JCOPE website.

One of these contracts, on behalf of the Queens Economic Development Corporation -- which is treated by state law as a public authority -- expired in 2010, so according to filing instructions, Kristen Stavisky was not required to declare it on her JCOPE form for that year. But the other clients -- foundations associated with the CUNY Graduate Center, Queensborough Community College, Queens College, CUNY Creative Arts Team, and SUNY’s University at Buffalo, as well as Brooklyn Public Library, New York Public Library, and Queens Public Library -- fall into an ambiguous zone, defined as local or state agencies in some statutes of New York State law, but not others.

Parkside’s government-affiliated nonprofit contracts picked up in 2009-2010, the last time Democrats held a ruling majority in the Senate. Toby Ann, a former social studies teacher, chaired the Senate’s Higher Education Committee that year.

At the time, Toby Ann, seeking an advisory opinion, wrote to JCOPE that though she was not required to, she would prohibit her son, but not his partners, from lobbying members of the Senate. Despite calls for a probe from ethics watchdogs, a 2009 advisory opinion from the state's Legislative Ethics Commission deemed the arrangement “appropriate,” the New York Daily News reported.

Mayoral candidate makes some good points

From CBS 2:

“How can de Blasio think it’s okay to go into debt with a law firm that frequently does business with the city?” mayoral candidate Paul Massey said. “No ordinary person can get legal services with no plan to pay for them.”

Massey wants to unseat de Blasio — he has the independent party endorsement and is seeking the Republican Party line as well. He sent letters to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and US Attorney Preet Bharara demanding an investigation into the mayor’s dealings, questioning whether the legal defense fund violates criminal law, the city charter, or ethics laws.

“Mayor de Blasio often likes to say that we’re living in a tale of two cities,” Massey said. “He’s right, he believes there’s one set of rules for Bill de Blasio and one set for everybody else.”

Assembly Member and a consultant at the same time

From DNA Info:

On the same day one of the most powerful lawmakers in the state was convicted of selling his office, Bronx Assemblyman Michael Blake announced he was taking a job with an influential political consulting firm.

Blake will join Hilltop Public Solutions as a partner, the firm announced in a press release Friday afternoon.

"I am excited to be joining Hilltop,” Blake said in the release, which did not mention he was an Assemblyman. “I look forward to working with the team and helping as we focus on progressive issues around the country.”

Blake, in a telephone interview, said there is no conflict of interest between his two jobs because he will work only on national and international projects for Hilltop. He said the release did not mention his role as an elected official because he wanted to make it clear the two aren't related.

"No conflict at all," said Blake who said the position was approved by the legislative ethics commission. "I understand the sensitivity," he added.

They want how much of a raise?

From the Daily News:

Poverty-crying City Council members are quietly plotting for a massive pay raise that will bring their six-figure salaries up to a whopping $192,500 — a 71% windfall — as cops face a proposed 1% hike, and firefighters will only see a 2.5% bump this year, sources told the Daily News.

More than half a dozen Council members — who earn base pay of $112,500 — have been holding hush-hush meetings to try to engineer the huge raises, which would bring their salaries above those of the governor and members of Congress, multiple Council sources said.

The members are hoping they can make the eye-popping raises more palatable to the public by agreeing to a slew of ethics reforms, which they hope will convince good government groups to back their plan, the sources said.

Lobbying ethics bill unveiled in Albany

From the Observer:

Following through on a promise he made last month, State Senator Tony Avella unveiled a bill today that would force political consultants to register and report their activities like lobbyists.

Mr. Avella, a Queens Democrat, said he was inspired by a NY1 report on the growing influence of BerlinRosen, a consulting and communications group that counts Mayor Bill de Blasio as a client, to craft the bill.

“In this time of declining public trust in elected officials, it has become vital that consultants are subject to similar disclosure mandates that lobbyists already follow,” Mr. Avella said in a statement. “By revealing these lobbyists in consultants’ clothing, we can continue to rebuild New Yorkers’ confidence in government.”

Mr. Avella, the chair of the Senate Ethics Committee and a part of the five-member breakaway Democratic bloc known as the Independent Democratic Conference, said his bill would apply to public relations, strategic communications and campaign consulting firms earning more than $5,000.

The bill would require these consultants to register and report their client relationships, similar to mandates that already exist for lobbyists. It would also require annual registration and bi-monthly reporting by consultants, which would be monitored and reviewed by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics. Penalties for failure to report or false reporting would include criminal charges as well as potential civil fines starting at $25,000.

De Blasio lobbying group under scrutiny

From NY Times:

A political group run by close allies of Mayor Bill de Blasio has attracted the interest of a New York State ethics panel, which is concerned that the group could be violating lobbying rules, according to two people familiar with the inquiry.

Representatives from the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics have contacted the group in recent weeks to ask why it has not yet registered as a lobbyist, in possible violation of rules requiring it to do so if it plans on influencing the outcome of pending legislation.

The two people who requested anonymity described communications that were meant to be confidential.

Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York at a budget hearing in Albany last month. Mr. de Blasio is quietly filling a war chest to finance future policy battles.

The group, the Campaign for One New York, was created by the mayor’s political consultants to raise money and attention for Mr. de Blasio’s political agenda while operating outside the city’s limits on campaign contributions. The group is paying for the mayor’s trips to California and for a previous one to the Midwest; on Thursday, Mr. de Blasio is to speak with technology moguls at a fund-raiser for the group in San Francisco. Tickets are selling for up to $10,000.

Under New York’s ethics rules, groups that “reasonably anticipate” spending more than $5,000 on lobbying activities are required to register with the ethics commission, known as Jcope, within 15 days.

Meeks, Clarke are international tweeders

From the Washington Post:

The state-owned oil company of Azerbaijan secretly funded an all-expenses-paid trip to a conference in Baku for 10 members of Congress and some of their spouses in 2013, according to a report by the Office of Congressional Ethics. Lawmakers received a number of gifts, but only one lawmaker reported them on his financial disclosure form. The lawmakers said they were unaware of the oil company's involvement and thought the gifts did not meet the reporting threshold.

One additional lawmaker attended while on a separate congressional delegation and did not have his expenses covered by the conference.

Schneiderman unveils anti-corruption plan

From the Daily News:

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman proposed an ethics reform agenda Monday to address what he called “a golden age of graft” among legislators.

Schneiderman called for barring lawmakers from making outside income, saying measures to force greater disclosure don’t go far enough.

Instead, Schneiderman would raise the current $79,500 base pay for lawmakers to between the $112,500 paid to New York City Council members and the $174,000 those in Congress receive.

He’d also do away with the flat $172 daily travel expense state lawmakers are paid. Instead, lawmakers would be reimbursed for expenses they actually incurred.

Hoping to stop “non-stop re-election fund-raising and campaigning,” Schneiderman pushed to change the state Constitution to make legislative terms four years, instead of the current two.

He’s also calling for campaign finance reform that would include the public financing of campaigns, “dramatically reduced” contribution limits and closing of loopholes that allow some donors to give basically unlimited amounts.

What's applies to the legislature should apply to Cuomo

From the Daily News:

State legislators say they are willing to enact a number of new ethics reforms, but they argue Gov. Cuomo should subject himself to more public disclosure as well.

Republican and Democratic legislative sources say that while Cuomo has attacked lawmakers on the issue of outside income, the governor is making as much as $900,000 from HarperCollins for his recent memoir, which only sold a few thousand copies.

They also say that perhaps there should be a ban on governors giving paid outside speeches. While Cuomo during his first four years has not given such speeches, former Govs. Mario Cuomo and George Pataki did.

New Jersey bars governors from receiving “directly or indirectly” any compensation, salary, honorarium, fee or any other form of income on top of their regular taxpayer-funded salary.

An official in the New York Legislature argued there should be more public disclosure on what guests, if any, are staying at the governor’s Albany mansion.

And, in perhaps the most contentious suggestion, a number of legislative sources say Cuomo’s longtime live-in celebrity chef girlfriend, Sandra Lee, should be required to publicly disclose her income, investments and other financial information that the spouses of public officials are already mandated to reveal.

Silver failed to disclose all his income

From the Daily News:

Already facing federal corruption charges, former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is now being fined for violating state ethics laws for not properly disclosing all his outside income.

The Joint Commission on Public Ethics — the state’s top ethics watchdog agency —notified Silver that he faces up to $120,000 in fines for filing inadequate financial disclosure statements in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

An indecent request?

From the Daily News:

As part of Mayor de Blasio’s drive to help Democrats retake the state Senate, a key de Blasio fundraiser hit up a city developer for a suggested contribution of $50,000, an email obtained by the Daily News shows.

The solicitation made the developer “feel uncomfortable” in part because he deals with the city on permitting and other land-use issues, a person who spoke with him said.

“He wasn’t sure how to play it because he has business with the city,” the source said. “While he likes the mayor, he doesn’t feel the Senate Democrats are friendly to the real estate industry.”

It was not immediately clear Wednesday if the developer, who did not wish to be identified, made the donation. His name is not listed among the donors whose contributions already have been reported to the state Board of Elections.

Earlier Wednesday, The News reported that another major player in the city's business community, supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis, gave $50,000 to the Democrats’ cause after de Blasio asked him for help.

Catsimatidis said he ponied up because he does business in the city and “I just wanted to show an indication I was willing to work with” de Blasio.

De Blasio is leading a coalition of unions and activists fighting for Democratic control of the Senate. The solicitations show the extent to which the mayor is putting his political and fund-raising muscle behind the effort.

AG candidate wants Parkside Group investigated

From the Daily News:

Ramon Jimenez, a Bronx lawyer and Green Party candidate for Attorney General, called on the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics to investigate the actions of a lobbying firm representing FreshDirect in its bid to move to the Bronx.

In the complaint, filed Friday, Jimenez accuses the lobbyist, The Parkside Group, of contacting Mayor de Blasio’s office on behalf of the online grocer and not properly disclosing its activities to the ethics commission.

“We want the law followed as far as them having to record all contact they have with officials,” Jiminez told The News Friday. “It’s a concern for the people of New York, and especially to everyone in the South Bronx.”

A Parkside representative said the group was well within the boundaries of New York’s lobbying laws, and chalked up the complaint as a campaign tactic.

“We are proud to be working on a project that is creating thousands of good paying jobs in the poorest Congressional district in America, and we have always complied with all requirements of city and state lobbying laws,” said Evan Stavisky, a Parkside Group spokesman. “This is just another last-ditch political stunt.”

Isn't it interesting that a political leader who purports to represent part of Queens is actively lobbying to move jobs out of the borough?

Did Chuck try to use the IRS to silence opponents?

From the NY Post:

Did Chuck Schumer try to use the IRS to sidestep the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling — and stick a dagger in the heart of conservative groups?

That’s the gist of a complaint filed this week with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics.

In Citizens United, the court held that bans on independent political expenditures by corporations, associations and labor unions are bans on speech.

The Center for Competitive Politics is asking that Schumer and nine other Democratic senators be investigated for trying to use the IRS to suppress the free speech of political opponents.

The complaint notes Schumer signed letters asking the IRS if it was investigating “social welfare organizations” to see if they were improperly campaigning.

Turns out the IRS did investigate. And — surprise! — almost all the groups singled out for special IRS scrutiny were conservative.

One last bill, thanks to Vito

From CBS New York:

The state Assembly has entered into two contracts worth $205,000 for an outside counsel to handle sexual harassment policy development and investigations after a high-profile scandal.

The state comptroller’s office says Tuesday the approval is for contracts with Rossein Associates. A spokesman for Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says the firm was retained by the Ethics Committee as part of reforms announced in May.

Merrick Rossein is a law professor at the City University of New York Law School at Queens College.

Smith wants trial postponed; Albany may ban use of donations to pay lawyers

From NY1:

State Senator Malcolm Smith wants to delay his trial on corruption charges until his re-election race is over.

The Queens Democrat's attorney asked a federal judge to wait until this year's primary date is set, then schedule the trial afterward.

He said Smith should run for office "unfettered."

The prosecution, however, says that voters would be better served with a verdict before the election.

From the NY Post:

A bill introduced by Brooklyn Assemblyman Nick Perry would make it illegal for corrupt politicians to use campaign cash to pay legal bills.

Under the measure introduced last week, elected officials wouldn’t be able to access donor funds if they’re indicted, charged or convicted of a crime, or if they resign as a result of violating state ethics law. Cash remaining in their campaign accounts would be forfeited to the state comptroller’s office, which would issue refunds to contributors.

Currently, lawmakers are able to take money from their campaign coffers and use it on high-priced lawyers to keep them out of the clink.

Former state Sen. Carl Kruger, who represented Mill Basin in Brooklyn, was sentenced to prison in April 2012 after taking bribes to steer $900,000 in taxpayer money to nonprofits. He used $1.5 million
from his campaign account to pay legal bills.

Former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno also shelled out about $1.5 million in donor cash to combat federal corruption charges.
Like all campaign-reform proposals, however, the bill faces hurdles in Albany.

Amendment may be proposed to state constitution

From Capital New York:

Aides to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and commissioners of the anti-corruption panel he appointed may take plans for a system of public campaign finance and propose them as a constitutional amendment, according to a source familiar with discussions between the commission and the administration.

The governor's aides have been in regular contact with members of the Moreland Commission that was formed in July. It's unclear which side first brought up the idea of an amendment, which the source says is now under discussion.

The commission has held two public hearings already, and to this point no witness has suggested the need to amend the state constitution to set up a public financing system. The testimony has focused on ideas for legislation that the commission will put forward in an expected December report that will, in turn, form the basis for negotiations with legislators when the return in January.

Packaging public financing as a constitutional amendment could make those proposals more palatable to resistant legislators, in part because an amendement would face several additional hurdles to becoming law and could not take effect for at least five years. Democrats in the Senate and Assembly support a system where small donations are multiplied with public funds, but Republicans have attacked this idea, citing some officials who abused the system and an ideological aversion to using taxpayer funds to pay for elections.

From the Cuomo perspective, pursuing an amendment could also change an increasingly unfavorable storyline, which has come to focus on ths administration's interference with the very commission he created, to considerable fanfare.

He's such a reformer...

From the Daily News:

The deep-pocketed real estate investors who own a landmark former stock exchange building in lower Manhattan lavished Gov. Cuomo with $76,000 in campaign donations just weeks before Cuomo approved a lucrative tax break for their property.

Three partners at Fisher Brothers, which owns the historic New York Curb Exchange at 86 Trinity Place, each cut $25,000 checks to Cuomo on Dec. 27. One exec kicked in an additional $1,000 on Jan. 11, and Cuomo okayed the tax breaks Jan. 30. Fisher plans a high-rise residential tower at the site.

The contributions from the Fisher Brothers execs are just the latest to emerge in the controversy over five Manhattan properties that were singled out for tax breaks in a January bill. The Daily News reported last week that one of the other beneficiaries, Extell Development Co., gave $100,000 to Cuomo days before he signed the bill.

The breaks mean $35 million in tax relief over 10 years for Extell’s planned One57 luxury apartment tower on W. 57th St.

Extell President Gary Barnett also donated $100,000 three weeks after the bill was signed to a state Democratic Party account that Cuomo was using to pay for ads pushing his agenda.

An anti-corruption commission created by Cuomo has subpoenaed the five companies.