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CVS trial: Employee questioned Celona invoice

11:28 AM Fri, May 16, 2008 |
Brandie Jefferson    Email

cvs_bibeault
Journal illustration / Frank Gerardi
Betty Bibeault, a former administrative assistant to former CVS executive Carlos Ortiz, left, answers questions from prosecutor Dan Petalas, right, while Thomas R. Kiley, Ortiz's lawyer, center, takes notes.


When former state Sen. John Celona submitted his first invoice to CVS as a $1,000-a-month consultant, in 2000, a CVS employee told jurors today, she asked her boss, Carlos Ortiz, if she should pay it.

“I asked if I should pay it, because I wasn’t expecting it and it wasn’t budgeted,” testified Betty Bibeault, who was Ortiz’s administrative assistant.

Ortiz told her to pay it, she testified, explaining that Celona was going to be working as a consultant, serving as “the eyes and ears of CVS among the senior citizen population.”

Ortiz also said that “this was something that Jack (Kramer) wanted to do,” according to Bibeault.

Kramer and Ortiz are on trial in U.S. District Court, Providence, on charges of bribery, conspiracy and mail fraud, accused of hiring Celona to do their bidding at the Rhode Island State House.

Celona is serving a 2 1/2-year prison term after pleading guilty to selling his office to CVS, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island. The trial's key witness, he is now not expected to testify today. When he does, he is expected to spend several days on the stand.

The defense maintains that Celona was hired to promote CVS through his network of seniors and his cable access television show.

Read yesterday's trial coverage.

-- Journal staff writer Mike Stanton

Bibeault testified today that Ortiz never mentioned Celona’s television show when explaining Celona’s hiring as a consultant. Nor, she testified, did Ortiz mention that Celona would be acting on legislation.

The prosecution also introduced a “Government Affairs” update that Ortiz wrote Kramer during the 2003 legislative session. Ortiz noted that two bills CVS opposed –– allowing pharmacy choice and Canadian drug imports – had passed the House.

But “I feel fairly confident that we will be able to kill both pieces of legislation in the Senate.”
The government charges that both bills died in the senate corporation committee, which Celona chaired, at the direction of his employers at CVS, the giant Woonsocket-based drug-store chain.

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Comments

eddie said:

kind of obvious what went on here-i guess the problem is that mr ryan had a lot of "buffers" that make him "untouchable"

Link | May 16, 2008 1:38 PM
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Jane said:

Exactly Eddie. Teflon Tom is the only person who could have given the go-ahead for something like this.

Link | May 16, 2008 2:38 PM
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