8chan/8kun QResearch Posts (3)
#1431929 at 2018-05-16 16:50:17 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #1796: Frogs on your 6 Edition
Top lawyer for Novartis retires following contract with Michael Cohen
A top official for pharmaceutical giant Novartis is leaving the company following revelations it inked a contract with President Trump's longtime personal lawyer for $1.2 million for healthcare advisory services.
Novartis said Wednesday that Felix Ehrat, the company's group general counsel and a member of its executive committee, is retiring from the company, effective June 1.
The company said Ehrat decided to retire "in the context of discussions surrounding Novartis' former agreement with Essential Consultants," a company operated by Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer.
"Although the contract was legally in order, it was an error," Ehrat said in a statement. "As a co-signatory with our former CEO, I take personal responsibility to bring the public debate on this matter to an end."
Novartis's contract with Cohen's Essential Consultants was revealed last week in a document made public by Michael Avenatti, a lawyer representing former adult film star Stormy Daniels in a lawsuit against Trump and Cohen. The document shows Novartis paid Essential Consultants monthly beginning in February 2017 for advice on matters relating to healthcare policy.
A spokeswoman for Novartis said this month the company had been questioned by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and is cooperating with his office. FBI agents raided Cohen's office, hotel room and home last month. Federal prosecutors obtained the search warrant based on a referral from Mueller.
Novartis was one of several companies, along with AT&T and Columbus Nova, that were named in the document published by Avenatti as having contracted with Essential Consultants and making payments to the firm from 2017 and into 2018.
AT&T acknowledged it paid Cohen's company $600,000 for his services and called the agreement with Cohen a "big mistake."
Though the contract with Essential Consultants was for one year, Novartis said it determined after a meeting with Cohen in March 2017 his company would be "unable to provide the services" it expected and decided "not to engage further."
Because the pharmaceutical giant's contract with Cohen's firm could only be "terminated for cause," Novartis continued to make payments to Essential Consultations until the contract ended in February 2018.
Top Senate Democrats are now pushing Novartis to turn over information about its contract with Cohen.
https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/top-lawyer-for-novartis-retires-following-contract-with-michael-cohen
#1430161 at 2018-05-16 13:38:13 (UTC+1)
Q Research General #1794 Whiskey Rebellion Edition
Novartis general counsel to step down after payments to Trump's lawyer
Novartis AG's top lawyer became the first executive to take the fall for the controversial $1.2 million in payments he helped arrange to President Trump's attorney, as the drugmaker tries to contain the furor from last week's revelation.
Felix Ehrat, who along with former chief executive Joe Jimenez signed the agreement with a consulting firm led by lawyer Michael Cohen, will step down after seven years as Novartis' general counsel, the Basel, Switzerland-based company said Wednesday in a statement. In an interview with Bloomberg, Jimenez said Cohen told him he had left Trump's organization and stopped working for the president before pitching for business with Novartis.
Novartis' new CEO, Vas Narasimhan, has been grappling with the fallout over the contract, which drew the drugmaker into special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's probe of suspected Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election.
Narasimhan, who's meeting with investors Wednesday in Basel, conducted a conference call Monday for 5,000 managers in which he said the company needs to rebuild trust and rethink its approach to the use of consultants and lobbying firms, according to a person familiar with the situation.
"Although the contract was legally in order, it was an error," Ehrat said in the statement. "As a co-signatory with our former CEO, I take personal responsibility to bring the public debate on this matter to an end."
Novartis is among a handful of companies that have been scrambling to explain why they made payments to Cohen's firm, Essential Consultants LLC. AT&T Inc., which paid the firm $600,000, forced out veteran lobbyist and attorney Robert Quinn as CEO Randall Stephenson called the hiring of Trump's lawyer a "big mistake" and said that its vetting process had failed.
Novartis has said it quickly determined that Cohen's firm was unable to provide the services it anticipated and after a single early-2017 meeting decided not to engage further. Still, the drugmaker was contractually bound to keep making monthly payments of $100,000 for a year. Novartis has said that Narasimhan had no involvement.
Jimenez said in the interview that a "third party" had recommended Cohen to Novartis, declining to identify that person. Novartis should have done more due diligence and "definitively parted ways" with Cohen as soon as it knew he wouldn't be able to help, the former CEO said.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-novartis-Ehrat-20180516-story.html
#1429139 at 2018-05-16 08:10:51 (UTC+1)
Q Research Board #1793 Could Be ——————— or [xxxxxxx] Edition
Novartis update (Added to Resignations)
MAY 16, 2018 / 5:25 AM / UPDATED 6 MINUTES AGO
Novartis top lawyer exits in wake of Trump attorney deal
John Miller
ZURICH (Reuters) - Novartis (NOVN.S) General Counsel Felix Ehrat will leave the Swiss drugmaker over his role in a $1.2 million contract it struck with the personal lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump, saying on Wednesday the pact was legal but an error.
https
://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-daniels-novartis/novartis-top-lawyer-exits-over-payment-to-trump-lawyer-idUSKCN1IH0EX