The mysterious $133M: Connection to PA State Sen Greenleaf?

Kudos to Ackman for this one:

"Based on a June 18, 2013 license application with the Pennsylvania State Board of Pharmacy. Other owners are believed to be: Matthew Davenport, David Wing, Edward
John Carne III, Gregory Blaszczynski, End Game Partnership LP, David Cowen, Elizabeth Kardos, Nick (Nicholas) Spuhler, David Ostrow, Jeffrey Gottesman, Gina Milner, Fabien
Forrester-Charles, Francis Jennings, Michael Ostrow, Paula and Timothy Schuler and Gretchen Sprigg Wisehart."


Now, at the time of this license application on June 18th before the Penn State Board of Pharmacy, Gretchen Sprigg Wisehart apparently was still a lawyer at Nachmias Morris & Alt, P.C. Then in July she was somehow inducted into the PA government as Deputy General Counsel for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, then elevated to Chief Counsel. Then she left that job in May 2015 to become an Executive VP / Chief Counsel at Philidor (how strange a lawyer and co-founder of Philidor would suddenly become Deputy and then Chief Counsel for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Revenue!). You definitely need some political clout for that.

Now, that man in the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycfpoDAmYJg) with a very, very nervous Andy Davenport, is one PA State Senator Stewart J. Greenleaf for the 12th district, which encompasses Hatboro and Horsham, where most of the original incorporators and the BQ6 crew are based from (http://www.senatorgreenleaf.com/). It's interesting to note that Andy Davenport, a former lowly graphics website designer, and the Senator Greenleaf have known each other for years now: "I've been coming to your family picnics ever since my kids were in strollers".

http://www.montcopa.org/index.aspx?NID=840 This is the website of the Controller (finance department) for Montgomery country (ie. Hatboro, where Philidor is based). Gretchen would have regularly interacted with the controllers of PA counties, especially the third most populous country-- Montgomery. Now, who's the controller for Montgomery country? None other than Stewart J. Greenleaf-- wait for it-- Junior.

His kid.

Now, about that $133M, where did it come from, and where did it go!? That's the ($133) million dollar question!

Perhaps you guys can contact Ms. Wisehart at Philidor and inquire:

Gretchen S. Wisehart, Esq.
Executive Vice President and General Counsel
(215) 971-2346
gwisehart@philidorrxservices.com

She's been a little shy about this

Or, perhaps the good State Senator Greenleaf himself?

State Senator Stewart J. Greenleaf (12th Dist, PA)

Harrisburg Office
Senate Box 203012
Harrisburg, PA 17120-3012
(717) 787-6599
800-848-5013
(717) 783-7328 Fax
TTY: 800-364-1581

District Office
711 North York Road
Suite 1
Willow Grove, PA 19090
(215) 657-7700
800-924-3300
(215) 657-1885 Fax

- Whistleblower rX

PS. Sorry about the delay, but I'm at over 1,000 pages, and the whole Laizer running away from reporters and being summoned before Congress has resulted in a change in timing (in addition to a lot of lulz). By the way, Tanner and the other Philidor guys are small potatoes, it's Laizer and Pearson that are the big dogs. Oh, and Jonah. But for another time.

Tootaloo!

 

When do you plan on releasing your full report?

 

Ok
so you are suggesting some corruption is going on between a controller of where Philidor is presided and Philidors Gretchen.
This doesn't incriminate Valeant. This is all Philidor n senate. One level down. There needs to be a link between or a very strong bond that would make a blow to Valeant itself.
But good dig. Keep it up

 

I had originally thought the Gretchen Wisehart link in Pershing Square's document was a mixup and that she was the name on the revised license signing as GC of Philidor 2yrs later. I assume she is the name behind End Game LLC because her name is not on the North Carolina license application which does include the End Game LLC name (whose address is Philidor's).

I haven't found a copy of the June 18, 2013 application online to confirm. I haven't paid the great state of PA for it and presumably one could.

GSW's LinkedIn profile as of June 2013 shows 5 associate jobs in 13 years. Her last job at Nachmias Morris & Alt was in Conshohocken and was "Structuring, negotiating, managing and closing complex financial, corporate and partnership transactions" which in and of itself tells you something.

The poster above has a point. Senator Greenleaf and his son, if in any way involved, would likely be more symptomatic of local corruption but not necessarily a Valeant issue. The question is whether Valeant built this and hid it and implemented the 'rip off the payer' algos or whether this whole idea sprung fully-formed from the head of Andy Davenport and his friends at BQ6 and Valeant just happened to come along later and say "hey, these guys are doing something cool - and look - they only sell Valeant product."

Based on what Valeant said about Philidor - that they take a fixed payment per script - that suggests Philidor's upside wasn't about milking the insurer/payer market for more than it would normally get but about processing volume. Investigative reporting by Bloomberg suggested that was not true, so either there was a variable paid to Philidor or Valeant knew what it was doing from the start. Hmmm....

 

Why did Ryan Weldon leave Valeant? (Son of William Weldon JNJ)

 

Because they sold aesthetics which was the division he was in charge of.

 

Was Davenport a supporter of either of their campaigns? Woudln't that have to be public record?

Did action by the controller or Senator open the door for Phillidor to begin operating?

Phillidor obviously provided lost of jobs in the PA area. Even if the money didn't make it to the campaign of the Senator, he clearly would have an incentive for helping Phillidor.

 

How about this one from Senator Greenleaf's page?

"In addition to his interest in criminal justice and judicial issues, Greenleaf has sponsored numerous consumer protection initiatives relating to telemarketing controls, octane level testing, the travel industry and the expansion of the Lemon Law to leased vehicles."

This part was especially interesting given the Philidor relationship: "Consumer protection initiatives relating to telemarketing controls..."

 

PA State Senator Greenleaf is a Republican, and Davenport has made small-ish donations for the Republican side ("leans Republican"). Sprigg Wisehart "leans Democratic", doing a short internship for VT US Senatar Patrick Leahy, and making small-ish donations for Democratic candidates. It is not clear there is any political connection between Sprigg Wisehart and Republican supporters.

It is not clear at all why she decided to leave, in May 2015, a high profile state government job (Chief Counsel PA Dept of Revenue) in a Democratic administration (that she was occupying for only a short time) to take on the new position of Exec VP/Chief Counsel at Philidor. She only officially joined Philidor a few months before the Philidor story exploded.

 

You can check, but I doubt he needed the money for political reasons. He's got a huge warchest for such a small district.

It looks like PA Senate District 12 is on lockdown for Senator Stewart Greenleaf; some elections he was the only candidate, and in elections where he had a Democratic contender he won 2/3 of the vote to 1/3. He's been a long-serving state senator, elected to the House of Reps in 77, he became a Senator in 79 and has stayed in office since-- 38 years!

Also, the 12th district is tiny- http://ballotpedia.org/Pennsylvania_State_Senate_District_12. Population 260K. It's comprised of a small dozen 5-20k population towns.

Seems more like he was likely paid off to keep things hush-hush. Seems to me he shoved Gretchet into the position of Chief Counsel of PA Department of Revenue, so if there was anything going on in terms of investigations she'd be the first to know. Second Junior as controller is also convenient. He's responsible for auditing; from a quick google search his biggest claim to fame is busting a crooked librarian who embezzled a whopping $6k. Philidor defrauds insurers of that in under 60 seconds.

Something is definitely amiss here. Looking forward to the report. 1,000 pages you say?! Make sure you forward it to our members of Congress and the Senate!!

 

I wonder if she and Davenport may have crossed paths at some point earlier. Clearly he seems to have known the senator for years. I would think the only thing that would drag her away from the job was a good compensation package.

 

Well, I assume Ackman wouldn't screw something like that up, as crazy as he may be, he has a knack for details. He would have told his lawyers to get every document and to scrutinize it. And the fact she was stuck in the Revenue department around the same time, and then joined Philidor later was legal, confirms that she was involved from the very start. She also has a M&A background, maybe she was a lawyer on one of Valeant's acquisitions?

Or maybe it has something to do with that $133M payment-- and probably many more in paper bag envelopes. I doubt Philidor cost that much to start up, and once it was operational it was a profit machine. Pearson was asked on the Q3 call what happened to the $133M. He didn't know; said it probably went to the equity owners. lol, right. He doesn't know where $133M of Valeant's money went....................just like he didn't know about Goldman Sachs' margin call......... sigh

 

Also wonder if maybe the senator recommended her to Davenport as he knew she might be helpful.

 

The bigger question is just how did she get IN to such a high profile job. She wasn't a big player lawyer-wise; in fact based on her high turn-over, what, 5 firms in 13 years, seems like she was anything but. But, I'm sure if the 38-year local Senator used his influence, after all if he could install Junior as controller, I'm sure he could pull strings and get her into the Department of Revenue Chief Counsel.

Do you have links to his donations to the Republican party? I checked Greenleaf's political disclosures and nothing related to Philidor or Davenport from what I saw. However, he does receive a substantial portion of his donations from the local GOP association.

 

Wow, if I was going to run a billion plus dollar fraud scam then Hatboro sounds like the ideal place. Quiet little town, a spy in the state Revenue department, and both the controller and Senator in your back pocket. Not to mention Greenleaf seems like the King of the Hamlet and everything is "within the family".

Well played, fatty Mike, Well played.

 

It started in Horsham. But yes... not a bad place.
Plenty of golf.

 

Big Bob THIS must be you...

 

If you look into her background, it is not clear what connection she could have had with Andrew Davenport and BQ6. I could find none whatsoever. It doesn't mean that it doesn't exist but I simply cannot find it. Her life from the late 90s to 2015 has been almost entirely spent in Bryn Mawr, PA, which while also a suburb of Philadelphia was not the same kind of place as Horsham. Bryn Mawr is closer to Bala Cynwyd (and there are a couple of players involved with a Bala Cynwyd link (Michael Ostrow (shareholder of Philidor) and Sean Fitzpatrick (occasional golf partner of Andrew Davenport, brother Matt, and Greg Blaszczynski))), and it is down the road from Haverford, where Andrew Davenport bought a really nice house for cash this past summer (Sean Fitzpatrick has a house on the same street, fronting a golf course (there is a LOT of golf in the Philidor story)).

As to Bill Ackman's "attention to detail", I will, with respect to the poster, chuckle a bit. Until I see the document (and I haven't) I will assume he made a mistake, or she was paid in kind (but as she was not a partner in Nachmias, Morris & Alt, I don't think that would have been likely). Gretchen Sprigg Wisehart appears to have a relationship with a guy who may have put her in touch with the state job. That job didn't start until after she would have become a shareholder in Philidor, but the relationship appears to have started at least 3yrs earlier (but they knew each other before that). If you look deeper, you will find that she did not get rich out of being a lawyer until that point in her life either and a deeper look suggests a cash investment in Philidor shares might have been difficult.

As to Bill Ackman's "attention to detail", none of his presentations (however long they may go on) ever seem to pose any deeper questions, whether with or contrary to his thesis. The assumptions made are often the assumptions made by the company in question, or they are even worse - pie-in-the-sky dreams of what might happen (the way a first year business school flunky might plan on becoming a mega-billionaire by investing and earning 35% a year after tax over a few decades). While it is a great idea to go talk to management and get really comfortable with them, and then invest based on both numbers and management, I have never found that there was a realistic understanding of the implications of numbers. Sure he and his guys are Excel jockeys, but when something grows at 30% a year for a long period, you had better understand why someone would want to pay 370% of that 5yrs from now. At $80bn mkt cap in August and an explicit company goal to be $150bn in market cap in 2016 still extant, when the $80bn market cap represents an EV/Sales number of 12x, "cash EPS" is almost meaningless. Ackman wants 20% returns in his portfolio and Valeant wanted to grow by investing in businesses at 20% IRR. So Ackman had to expect that 10yrs from now, EV at 12x sales was an appropriate exit multiple. Huh? Nice if you can get it but not sustainable.

Why has no-one brought up where Cowen (Philidor shareholder) and Mike Pearson live?

 

As thong fu says 'Gretchen Wisehart is key'

 

Andrew Davenport and Gary Tanner were puppets of Senator Greenleaf and Valeant. If you look deeply, I bet youll find Jonah Shaknai and Laizer Kormwasser own stock in Philidor!