Scott Pruitt Before the E.P.A.: Fancy Homes, a Shell Company and Friends With Money
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/21/us/politics/scott-pruitt-oklahoma-epa.html
A review of real estate and other public records shows that Mr. Pruitt was not the sole owner: The property was held by a shell company registered to a business partner and law school friend, Kenneth Wagner. Mr. Wagner now holds a top political job at the Environmental Protection Agency, where Mr. Pruitt, 49, is the administrator.
The mortgage on the Oklahoma City home, the records show, was issued by a local bank that was led by another business associate of Mr. Pruitts, Albert Kelly. Recently barred from working in the finance industry because of a banking violation, Mr. Kelly is now one of Mr. Pruitts top aides at the E.P.A. and runs the agencys Superfund program.
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And he channeled state contracts to Mr. Wagners law firm, which was already doing business with the state.
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Last summer, about six months into his job as E.P.A. administrator, Mr. Pruitt traveled by chartered jet to a Superfund cleanup site in Colorado, where the Gold King Mine had released toxic wastewater.
At the event were two of his most loyal Oklahoma business associates Mr. Kelly and Mr. Wagner, newly installed as E.P.A. officials themselves, though neither of them had a background in environmental policy or regulation.