charlie crist: 3-23-06 miami herald gdx

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The Miami Herald

March 23, 2006 Thursday

Decision haunts attorney general;A scandal over the improper release of confidential state workerinformation is nagging at whodeclined to investigate the case and now faces questions frompolitical opponents.

BYLINE: MARC CAPUTO, [email protected]

SECTION: B; Pg. 1

LENGTH: 1037 words

The disclosure that a company doing work for the state may have given cheap labor in India access tothe confidential information of up to 100,000 state employees -- making them vulnerable to identitytheft -- is starting to haunt the governor's race of state who declinedto investigate the case.

The issue was first revealed by two whistle-blowers who said they were so worried about whatDenver-based GDX was doing, that they asked for Crist's help in a lawsuit replete with internal companye-mails and spreadsheets.

But the response, they said, ''appalled'' them even more: They heard almost nothing from his office,

which declined to take the case without explanation.

As strategists from Crist's Republican opponent, Tom Gallagher, take note, Democrats are now trying touse the case to define Crist as an incompetent do-nothing.

Democrats also say Crist is beholden to a powerful company involved in the case, Convergys, whichhired a lobbyist who's a Crist advisor. Convergys, a computer-systems firm that won a $350 millioncontract to computerize and centralize Florida's personnel records, hired GDX as a subcontractor andnow faces a $5 million fine.

Crist, who has meticulously burnished his credentials as a champion of the little guy and a staunchopponent of identity theft, dismissed the attacks as ''part of the deal'' in a ''political season.'' He notedthat no one's identity has been reported stolen.

Still, the state's Department of Management Services is notifying employees of the possibility of a''breach'' of confidential information, such as people's Social Security numbers and medical history. ButDMS says it has no idea if the data were misused, or whom it was seen by in India, which is not boundby any U.S. or Florida laws protecting people from identity theft. The lawsuit also mentions thepossibility the workers' information was sent to China and Barbados, also beyond the reach of AmericanID-theft laws.

The problems began soon after Convergys won its contract and hired GDX in 2003 to help index theelectronic -- and confidential -- personnel records. Convergys' contract specified that the work must beperformed in Denver or Jacksonville. Convergys officials now say GDX misled them and allowed workersin Bangalore, India, to work on the records. GDX declined to comment.

Attorney General Charl ie Crist,

Attorney General Charlie Crist,

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One of the whistleblowers, GDX worker Kristina Gilmore, told The Miami Herald that it it was clear GDXwould use ''offshore'' labor to cut costs right from the start. She said Convergys should have suspectedthis because of the cheap cost of GDX's contract -- a claim Convergys disputes. Convergys refused toprovide the Deparment of Management Services a copy of the contract that showed how much it waspaying GDX for its services.

Gilmore said she and co-worker Tara Pagano were so worried, they filed a lawsuit in Tallahassee inMarch 2005 to alert state officials to the ''fraud'' perpetrated by GDX because it was putting people'sidentities at risk.

Gilmore said she was ''disappointed and appalled'' by what Crist's office did: Nothing. Her court filingincluded GDX e-mails mentioning the challenges of doing the ''Florida job'' on ''India time,'' as well aslists of Indian workers who were working on the files.

''I was definitely shocked and surprised that no one would think enough about what the potential was foridentity theft to at least ask some questions,'' she said. ``Tara had lived in Florida and she and I hadconversations about the fact that, because of the political issues, that the AG's office did not want totake it on.''

Crist said his office began ''taking a look'' into the case three weeks ago -- a year after the suit was filed-- because ''new facts are developed every day.'' But he said he was unaware that DMS and Convergystold a legislative committee last week that a security breach had occurred.

Crist suggested the whistle-blowers' law firm -- Tampa-based James, Hoyer & Newcomer -- ``may besomewhat frustrated that we did not sign on with them [and join the lawsuit]. We have private counselwho come to our office every week wanting us to sign on to this action and that action.''

Crist's office issued a written statement Wednesday listing all the work it had done on the India case,including ''consulting'' with the Tampa law firm.

Not true, said attorney John Newcomer. He said Crist's office called only a few times to inquire about``procedural issues, nothing substantive.''

''It's not sour grapes. We will prosecute the case on behalf of the state of Florida. If the AG doesn't thinkit's important enough, we do. We will do their work for them,'' said Newcomer, who found the lack ofinterest by Crist's office ``unusual.''

The nation's premier expert on such whistleblower actions, Washington-based attorney Jack Boese, saidnormally government investigators talk to the whistle-blowers and their lawyers. But Boese said, theattorney general probably relied on the counsel of DMS in deciding not to take the case.

Crist said his agency didn't get involved because it was ultimately a matter for DMS, which oversees theConvergys contract. DMS secretary Tom Lewis said he knew little of the suit and never discouragedCrist's office from getting involved.

Lewis checked with Convergys and was told in a May 20 letter that no work was performed outside theUnited States.

Lewis said last week he now believes Convergys knew some of its work was performed overseas, andtherefore proposed the $5 million fine. Convergys denies it knew of the offshore work and said itshouldn't have to pay the fine. It has agreed to set up a program to help state employees alert officialsto identity theft.

Lewis said his department gathered its information after heading to Denver, where its investigatorsinterviewed Gilmore and Pagano in February -- the first contact they had with Florida officials in theyear after filing the action.

Democrats say Crist did nothing for an overarching reason: Convergys is a Republican Party donor andhired a top Crist campaign advisor, lobbyist Brian Ballard.


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Ballard said Democrats are grandstanding and there's no merit to their claim.

Said Crist: ``I would encourage them to stay tuned and not be too judgmental.''

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Subject

ATTORNEYS GENERAL

JUSTICE DEPARTMENTS

FRAUD & FINANCIAL CRIME

IDENTITY THEFT

INVESTIGATIONS

POLITICAL PARTIES

US DEMOCRATIC PARTY

US STATE GOVERNMENT

CONTRACT AWARDS

Geography

INDIA

FLORIDA, USA

UNITED STATES

People

CHARLIE CRIST

OR

Show Major and Minor Index Terms | Show Relevancy Scores | Clear Selections

SUBJECT: JUSTICE DEPARTMENTS (91%); ATTORNEYS GENERAL (91%); POLITICAL PARTIES

(90%); FRAUD & FINANCIAL CRIME (90%); IDENTITY THEFT (90%); INVESTIGATIONS (90%); US

DEMOCRATIC PARTY (90%); US STATE GOVERNMENT (90%); CONTRACT AWARDS (87%); US

SOCIAL SECURITY (77%); US REPUBLICAN PARTY (77%); CAMPAIGNS & ELECTIONS (77%);

SOCIAL SECURITY (77%); GOVERNORS (73%); CONTRACTS & BIDS (71%); LARCENY & THEFT

(57%)

COMPANY: CONVERGYS CORP (55%)

TICKER: CVG (NYSE) (55%)

INDUSTRY: NAICS541512 COMPUTER SYSTEMS DESIGN SERVICES (55%); SIC7373 COMPUTER

INTEGRATED SYSTEMS DESIGN (55%); NAICS518210 DATA PROCESSING, HOSTING & RELATED

SERVICES (55%); SIC7374 COMPUTER PROCESSING & DATA PREPARATION & PROCESSING

SERVICES (55%)

PERSON: CHARLIE CRIST (96%)

GEOGRAPHIC: JACKSONVILLE, FL, USA (75%) FLORIDA, USA (92%); COLORADO, USA (79%);KARNATAKA, INDIA (58%) INDIA (94%); UNITED STATES (92%); BARBADOS (79%); CHINA (79%)

LOAD-DATE: March 23, 2006

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper


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