John Ford’s financial records came under examination today in federal court. The former state senator is charged with taking $800,000 in consulting fees from companies that obtained state contracts with his help.
Chief Clerk for the State Senate, Russell Humphrey, testified that before Ford resigned in 2005, he wanted to amend his financial disclosure statements for 2002 and 2003 to add consulting as one of his business enterprises. In the original statements, Ford only listed funeral, real estate, and insurance, despite being paid thousands of dollars a month as a consultant for Doral Dental. Doral held TennCare’s dental contract.
Defense attorney Isaiah Gant argued that there was never any deadline to amend the statements, and that Ford’s job as a consultant was never hidden. It had been reported in the Tennessee Blue Book since 1991.
Humphrey said Ford was also supposed to declare when he had a conflict of interest involving any bills or amendments in the Senate.
Later, First Tennessee bank employee Vicki Hayes testified that Doral Dental paid over $1 million to Ford’s consulting firm between 2002 and 2005.
Hayes said 40% of that was moved every month to an account called John Ford & Associates, of which he was the only associate.
The defense did not cross-examine Hayes.
The last testimony of the day came from Tennessee’s Commissioner of Finance and Administration Dave Goetz. Goetz testified that Ford asked him several times if he could move clients from TennCare Select to Omnicare.
Omnicare was another TennCare contractor that paid Ford over $420,000 over the course of five years.
Goetz said he did not find the request unusual, since the company was based in Ford’s district of Memphis, and it was the last minority-owned managed care organization in the state.
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