News from Maitland, Portland Communications, and Edelman
Maitland PR representing Sir Philip Green
Sir Philip Green finds himself in the middle of the BHS Pensions scandal in the U.K. And he wants out of it. But then probably do all of the 20,000 or more current and future pensioners who have watched their retirement funds dwindle to nothing since Sir Philip took the reigns of BHS in 2000. Now the Green family is worth over £300 million and those people who will all be out of a job and a retirement fund within the next few weeks want some, if not all, of their future back.
Sir Philip has reported hired Maitland to spin his troubles away and is willing to pay them – according to reports – £20,000 per week to do that job. Time will tell if the London-based corporate communications consultancy can work that much magic.
McDonald’s seeks Portland Communications help to get approval for new location in the U.K.
McDonald’s want to tear down the abandoned South Yorkshire Police Training Center to build a new McDonalds in Ecclesfield – Sheffield, U.K. But the locals aren’t too excited at the possibility saying it is on a busy street and could cause safety concerns as well as traffic issues. After enough opposition, McD’s brought in Portland to canvas the community and surrounding areas looking for support of the new build.
So far, almost no one in Ecclesfield wants it, but many in the surrounding communities do and that support is being presented to government planning officials to demonstrate all the local support for the new restaurant. Ecclesfield locals are crying foul – and that their tactics stink more than a week old filet o’ fish sandwich.
Yet another accusation against Trump’s team
Politics is a dirty business, and this Presidential campaign seems particularly so. Now the media and the DNC say that Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman has a past dealing with the pro-Putin Ukranian government and that Manafort took $12.7 million in cash off the books for services rendered between 2007 and 2012. Their proof is a hand-written ledger provided by someone in the Ukrainian camp. The DNC people imply this must be true and it must also be connected to the recent hack of the DNC by Russia. That’s without any further evidence, trail of that money being connected in any way to Manafort. It’s being investigated, but even Anti-Corruption Bureau says, at this point, they aren’t even looking at individuals in their probe.
Manafort, a partner in Davis Manafort, Inc., who possibly was part of the hiring process of Edelman, a DJE company, to represent the Ukraine in 2007ish to create “a communications campaign to increase Prime Minister Yanukovych’s visibility in the U.S. and Europe” according to DOJ filings. But if his firm was involved, it may have only been as a facilitator rather than an actual player.
For his part, Manafort told ABC News, “I have never received a single off-the-books cash payment, as falsely ‘reported’ by The New York Times, nor have I ever done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russia. Further, all of the political payments directed to me were for my entire political team: campaign staff (local and international), polling and research, election integrity and television advertising. The suggestion that I accepted cash payments is unfounded, silly and nonsensical.”
