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Archives | (May 2001)
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The Anthrax Vaccine: Making Our Soldiers Guinea Pigs Part One (cont.)
------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 4 of 6 The two MBPI employees who were assigned the task of facilitating the sale formed a partnership, Michigan Biologic Products, Inc., or MBP Inc., to purchase the Institute. They had good reason to be interested in a buy-out. They had insider knowledge of a pending lucrative contract from the Department of Defense to produce anthrax vaccine for military use. This, mind you was in addition to other products such as the DPT vaccine and Rabies vaccine that Institute already was selling. Astoundingly, the State permitted them to bid on the purchase despite what many would see as a conflict of interest. Even more curious was the facility’s valuation. An outside accounting firm was brought in and, with the assistance of the two employees valued the Institute at a mere $10.5 million. The figure was so low that Michigan State Representative Lingg Brewer filed a lawsuit to block the sale from going through. Although his suit would not be successful, his complaint apparently was, because the ultimate sales price was $25 million! Initially, it didn’t seem to matter that the two employees had bid on the purchase because the winning bidder was a company called BioPort that was formed for the specific purpose of purchasing the Institute. But like all things associated with the anthrax vaccine, there was more to the story than was being told. AN INSIDER DEAL?To say that BioPort was the product of a murky financial web is an understatement. Understanding its shadowy beginnings, however, is an important part of understanding the entire anthrax controversy. BioPort was established by a company called Intervac for the express purpose of purchasing the Michigan Biologics Products Institute. One of the principal owners of Intervac was none other than Admiral William Crowe, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Clinton appointee as Ambassador to Great Britain. According to his own spokesman, Crowe, who owns 22.5 percent of Intervac made no financial investment in the company. Some 30 percent of Intervac stock is held by Nancy El-Hibri who ABC News described as a “mother and homemaker in Suburban Maryland.” It is the balance of the ownership, however, that is of real interest. It is held by a company called I&F Holdings which is owned by El-Hibri’s father-in-law Ibrahim El-Hibri and Mrs. El-Hibri’s husband, Fuad El-Hibri. The senior El-Hibri is a Lebanese citizen, and Fuad El-Hibri held German citizenship at the time of the sale. He has since become a naturalized American. Previously, Fuad El-Hibri worked in the mergers and acquisitions department of Citibank in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where he acted as a financial advisor to a number of wealthy Saudis. When the Saudis indicated that they were interested in obtaining vaccines against biological agents – particularly anthrax and botulinum Type A – he decided to fill that need. |
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