2018: "Company owned by Speaker McCarthy's in-law got more than $7m in no-bid govt. contracts

Michael Vario @mvario1
Kevin McCarthy’s Brother-In-Law Got $7.6M in Government Contracts — “Never Discussed”

The LA Times story from 2018 begins: “A company owned by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s in-laws won more than $7 million in no-bid and other federal contracts at U.S. military installations and other government properties in California based on a dubious claim of Native American identity by McCarthy’s brother-in-law.”

Reporters Paul Pringle and Adam Elmahrek reveal that McCarthy’s brother-in-law’s company, Vortex Construction, “was awarded more than $4 million in minority set-aside contracts for projects at China Lake.”

They further reveal that “McCarthy has been a staunch advocate in Congress for funding and staffing for China Lake, the Navy’s largest property at more than 1.1 million acres, and spearheaded successful efforts to expand its borders.”

Though “ethics watchdogs questioned whether the blossoming of the in-laws’ business in McCarthy’s political backyard was a coincidence,” the article states that “both Wages and McCarthy said they have never discussed Vortex’s work with each other.”

So the Bidens’ claim — which McCarthy cast aspersions on — that two close relatives never discussed the business one was conducting, even when that business could be aided by political power held by the other, must sound familiar to McCarthy. It’s the same claim he has made himself.

https://2paragraphs.com/2023/09/kevin-mccarthys-brother-in-law-got-7-6m-in-government-contracts-story-resurfaces-after-biden-accusation/


2018 Los Angeles Times - House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s family benefited from U.S. program for minorities based on disputed ancestry

The prime contracts, awarded through a federal program designed to help disadvantaged minorities, were mostly for construction projects at the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in McCarthy’s Bakersfield-based district, and the Naval Air Station Lemoore in nearby Kings County.

Vortex Construction, whose principal owner is William Wages, the brother of McCarthy’s wife, Judy, received a total of $7.6 million in no-bid and other prime federal contracts since 2000, The Times found. The Bakersfield company is co-owned by McCarthy’s mother-in-law and employs his father-in-law and sister-in-law, Wages said. McCarthy’s wife was a partner in Vortex in the early 1990s.

Vortex faced no competitive bids for most of the contracts because the Small Business Administration accepted Wages’ claim in 1998 that he is a Cherokee Indian. Under the SBA program, his company became eligible for federal contracts set aside for economically and socially disadvantaged members of minority groups, a boon to its business.

Wages says he is one-eighth Cherokee. An examination of government and tribal records by The Times and a leading Cherokee genealogist casts doubt on that claim, however. He is a member of a group called the Northern Cherokee Nation, which has no federal or state recognition as a legitimate tribe. It is considered a fraud by leaders of tribes that have federal recognition.

Vortex was awarded more than $4 million in minority set-aside contracts for projects at China Lake. McCarthy has been a staunch advocate in Congress for funding and staffing for China Lake, the Navy’s largest property at more than 1.1 million acres, and spearheaded successful efforts to expand its borders.

https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-na-pol-mccarthy-contracts-20181014-story.html