The curious case of Rand Paul

TPM reports:


Zack Roth takes a look at the little-known not-for-profit founded and run by Kentucky GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul for the purpose of issuing board certification to ophthalmologists. Paul, himself an ophthalmologist, apparently set up his board as a competitor to the longstanding American Board of Ophthalmology, which certifies about 96 percent of the country's ophthalmologists. But the professional ophthalmology groups we talked to had never heard of Paul's National Board of Ophthalmology even though it's been around since 1999, and we could only find a few physicians claiming NBO certification.


Check out document filed online with the Kentucky Secretary of State's office.


And there is more. Paul's strange ties with big oil companies.


Page One Kentucky website reports:


Dow. He’s married to Rand’s sister, Dr. Joy Paul-LeBlanc. His bio on the Dow website caught my attention:

In Mr. Leblanc’s previous role, he provided business finance support for the VERSENEÒ chelating agents, Quaternaries, and DAXAD/Glycine value centers. In this role he participated in three separate strategy developments, a competitive mapping exercise and the divestiture of the DAXAD/Glycine business.

Chelating agents. What the heck are chelating agents?

According to Dow, they’re used in “several operations in the drilling, production, and recovery of oil. They can prevent plugging caused by iron precipitation during stimulation and fracturing.” They’re also used for scale removal and prevention on well casings and can prevent scaling in boilers used for enhanced oil recovery steam flooding.

Raises lots of questions… like whether or not those chelating agents could have been used in the well/rig/equipment involved in the Gulf disaster. Were they used? Are they used? Does Dow have a business relationship of any sort with BP or the company that owns the rig BP was leasing?


And for the record: there are direct ties to that particular oil rig and Dow. The Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer of the company that owns it – Transocean – is Michael Munro. Take a look at his bio:

Mr. Munro has extensive experience leading global compliance programs. Prior to joining Transocean as Chief Compliance Officer and Associate General Counsel in 2008, Mr. Munro served as Global Director of Ethics and Compliance at Baker Hughes, Director of Compliance and Associate General Counsel at the Bristow Group, and in various roles in his 17 years at Dow Chemical, including Deputy Director, Global Ethics and Compliance; Managing Counsel, International Trade and Logistics; Corporate Employment and Labor Counsel; Corporate M&A/Finance Counsel and Labor Relations Manager, North America.

Additionally, Rand Paul’s brother, Ronnie, works for Dow. Ronnie’s also a member of Rand Paul’s Alchemy, LLC (more on Alchemy here and here). Which begs the question of whether or not Rand himself is directly benefiting from his attack on Obama.


More on Paul's personal financial disclosures. Click here.