James F.X. Payne joined Qwest in August 1999 – near the height of Nacchio’s five-year tenure – and worked directly with Nacchio on government contracts as senior vice president of the company’s Government Systems Division.

During the Fox interview, Nacchio referenced a meeting at the headquarters of the National Security Agency in February 2001 in which he expected to learn about the fate of a lucrative contract. At the end of the meeting, he said, the government made a “peculiar” request that he thought wasn’t legal.

“The reason I was invited into that meeting – the reason the CEO shows up – is because you’re at the contract phase, the people want to look across the table at you and know that if they need something, ‘will you be there for them?’” Nacchio said. “I expected, going into the meeting, that we were going to win a $50 to $150 to $200 million contract. I did not learn we did not win that contract until June 2001.”

The timing is key because Nacchio’s illegal stock sales occurred in early 2001.
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“Joe was only at the NSA once in his years at Qwest. I escorted him there and was with him at all times during that one meeting. To my knowledge that is the sum total of his engagement with that agency,” Payne said. “Further, the contract that he cited that was denied Qwest in retaliation for lack of cooperation was never bid by Qwest. It was the subject of intense inquiry by the government in preparation for the trial. Ironically, even though Qwest did not bid as a prime on that contract, we did bid as a subcontractor to a prime and that team did win.”