Pressure to Donate to Romney Alleged in Complaint

A former executive who says his boss pressured him to contribute to Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has filed an employment-bias complaint that offers a rare glimpse behind the curtain of big-money corporate fund raising.

Richard Pimentel, a former executive of Huron Consulting Group Inc., contends he lost his job as a financial-management consultant partly in retaliation for refusing the chief executive's repeated calls to contribute to the former Massachusetts governor's bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

The company denies that charge. But officials confirm the authenticity of emails showing that the CEO of the Chicago-based corporate consulting firm, Gary E. Holdren, repeatedly linked his requests for donations to Huron's business prospects. The emails were provided to The Wall Street Journal by Mr. Pimentel.

"This is not about me trying to force a political candidate on you and trying to see how you vote," Mr. Holdren wrote in one email, dated Jan. 27, 2008, to Huron managing directors, the firm's senior executives. "This is just business and the way business works."

In another email, dated Sept. 21, 2007, Mr. Holdren wrote, "I wanted to thank all of you who contributed to Mitt Romney. You can't realize how much leverage this gives Huron going forward to ask various people for business."

Other emails from Mr. Holdren refer to conversations with Mr. Romney, deals Huron supposedly won from Romney supporters at other firms and promises to reward Huron executives with "business for your contributions."

Mr. Romney received at least $92,000 in contributions from Huron executives, Federal Election Commission records show. That compares with $27,000 in donations to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's Democratic campaign for president; nearly $8,000 to his former rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York; and less than $4,000 to John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

In a statement, Huron said that the emails represented a "personal request" for voluntary contributions and that no executives benefited from or were punished for their responses. The firm added that such requests "are common in companies and organizations across America." Mr. Holdren, also the firm's chairman and president, was unreachable for comment, an aide said Wednesday.

In a June 13 letter, an outside attorney for Huron said it was still investigating Mr. Pimentel's allegations. The attorney didn't return calls Wednesday asking for comment.

A spokesman for Mr. Romney said in an email that the campaign hadn't heard of the situation and wasn't a party to those emails. "If anyone at Huron Consulting felt pressured to contribute, we stand ready to refund the donations if requested," he wrote. Since ending his own presidential bid in February, Mr. Romney has campaigned extensively on behalf of Sen. McCain and is frequently mentioned as a possible vice-presidential candidate on the ticket.

In an election cycle in which presidential candidates have raised a record $1.2 billion so far, the emails underscore the corporate horse trading that can lie behind fund raising. Company executives may view political contributions as a way to build influence, strengthen business relationships and increase revenue.

Among the biggest reasons people give to campaigns is business reasons, or because a friend asked them to, says Stephen Weissman of the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute in Washington. He said his research suggests corporate executives frequently donate to help their businesses.

Asking management colleagues for donations isn't illegal, as long as nobody is forced to contribute. Findings of coercion are rare. Executives may grumble, but some may see donations as the price to keep a boss happy, Mr. Weissman and others say.

Mr. Pimentel, 65 years old, raised his charges in an age-bias complaint filed last month with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It claims Huron dismissed Mr. Pimentel because of his age, and as retaliation after he had informed his immediate boss that "I was not comfortable with Mr. Holdren's numerous requests" for Romney contributions.

In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Pimentel said he felt that requesting political donations "is not something a CEO of a public company should do." He claimed he was one of Huron's best-performing managing directors, earning about $600,000 a year at the time he lost his California job. He now works for a rival consultancy.

Mr. Holdren, 58, founded Huron in 2002 with other former partners of Arthur Andersen LLP, after the once-venerable audit firm collapsed amid accounting scandals. He took the firm public in 2004; it was named the fastest-growing company in America by Entrepreneur magazine in 2005.

In his emails soliciting donations, Mr. Holdren mentioned the importance of gaining attention and business for the young firm, writing in September that a Romney donation "is some of the best practice-development money Huron could spend."

One issue Mr. Holdren raised was Huron's dealings with Dan Dumezich, a tax lawyer at Mayer Brown in Chicago. "He has given Huron a large JP Morgan tax case and he is a young mover and shaker at Mayer Brown," Mr. Holdren wrote in a Jan. 27 email in which he asked Huron executives to attend a fund-raising event on Feb. 1 hosted by Mr. Dumezich's law firm.

Mr. Dumezich was one of Mr. Romney's top fund-raisers until the candidate dropped out of the presidential race in February.

"You often contribute based on which friend asked you to," said Mr. Dumezich, in response to queries about Mr. Holdren's email.

Mr. Dumezich said that he had known Mr. Holdren for 20 years, and that Mayer Brown had used Huron for litigation support and consulting services. Mr. Dumezich said the business dealings had nothing to do with the pair's support for Mr. Romney. "I don't think our business turns on anything but getting the best people to do the work," said Mr. Dumezich.

In his Jan. 27 email, Mr. Holdren also said that Mr. Romney had personally called to ask his help in raising money, and that "I soon received a third call from Muneer Satter at Goldman Sachs asking for my help in raising more funds" for Mr. Romney.

Mr. Satter is a managing director at the Wall Street firm.

"I again reminded Muneer that I couldn't make any promises, but business from Goldman Sachs would be well appreciated, and that I hope he knows that I am going to call him and his partners in the future asking for business from Goldman," Mr. Holdren wrote.

Goldman Sachs said: "Mr. Satter did not personally raise any money from Mr. Holdren nor does he have a business or personal relationship with him. Furthermore, he has never given any business to Huron Consulting."

--T.W. Farnam contributed to this article.

Write to Joann S. Lublin at joann.lublin@wsj.com and Mary Jacoby at mary.jacoby@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications

A former executive of Huron Consulting Group Inc. has filed an employment-bias complaint alleging pressure to donate to Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. A Campaign '08 headline in a previous version of this article incorrectly referred to the filing as a lawsuit.

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