Tony Podesta sues former clients, seeking to collect on unpaid bills
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/20/podesta-former-clients-suit-1071961
The Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta has been suing former clients over what he says are nearly half a million dollars in unpaid bills — some of it for work he claims was done after his firm collapsed and stopped paying employees.
The Podesta Group — an empty shell for more than a year after it imploded amid revelations about its work with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort — has sued 10 former clients in recent months, according to court records. They include name-brand companies such as SeaWorld as well as nonprofits such as Refugee Council USA and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
The suits show the lengths to which Podesta — one of the most prominent Democratic lobbyists in Washington before the collapse of his firm — is willing to go to scrape money out of what remains of his firm. Podesta, who accumulated a multi-million-dollar art collection during his flush years, has continued to live a high-flying lifestyle in the aftermath of his firm’s implosion, including recent trips to Venice, Florence, Rome and the French coast, according to his Facebook posts.
The suits claim the clients failed to pay their final bills or other fees owed to the firm. In some cases, the Podesta Group is trying to get paid for work it claims was done late last year after the firm told its lobbyists and most other employees they would stop getting paid.
At least one former client is fighting back.
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The Podesta Group sued Ajamie LLP, a Houston law firm, last month for failing to pay its final monthly bill last year of $15,000. Ajamie responded by suing the Podesta Group for up to $200,000 in damages, accusing the firm of “failure to perform meaningful work” after it came under scrutiny following President Donald Trump’s election for its work with Manafort.
“Podesta Group clearly became too busy covering its tracks and propping up its business to work on its client matters, including its” work on behalf of the law firm, Thomas Ajamie, the firm’s managing partner, wrote in the suit.