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Can't help but notice how many companies now having legal troubles are connected directly to powerful people in Washington. Case in point: Rite Aid.

Here's a quote from Joe Conason's "Notes on a Native Son", from Harper's Magazine, Feb, 2000:

"[George W. Bush's] Arbusto partners included...Rite Aid drugstores chairman Lewis Lehrman..."

And here's some information from the Center for Responsive Politics regarding Rite Aid's political contributions for election years 2000 and 2002:

Rite Aid Corp 2002 PAC Summary Data
2002 election (so far)
Total Receipts $267,016
Contributions from this PAC to federal candidates - 16% to Democrats, 84% to Republicans

2000 election
Total Receipts$433,325

Contributions from this PAC to federal candidates - 27% to Democrats, 73% to Republicans

And here's a New York Times article from June, 22, 2002 on the indictments of current and former Rite Aid execs:

Saturday Ex-Rite Aid Officials Face U.S. Charges Of Financial Fraud
By KENNETH N. GILPIN (NYT)

Three former top executives and a current employee of the Rite Aid Corporation were indicted yesterday in what regulators called a securities and accounting fraud that led to a $1.6 billion restatement of earnings, the largest ever.

The criminal charges, filed by the United States attorney's office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, follow a two-and-a-half-year investigation in concert with the Securities and Exchange Commission.