Representative Paul Kanjorski is a congressman from the 11^th Congressional district of Pennsylvania. Representative Kanjorski currently sits on the House Financial Services Committee and serves as the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and government Sponsored Enterprises. Allegations against Representative Kanjorski’s ethical conduct involve the misuse of his official position to direct over $9 million to a company owned by family members and allegedly run by Representative Kanjorski.

Congressman Kanjorski has steered over $9 million in federal funding to a company called Cornerstone Technologies, a company run by Mr. Kanjorski’s daughter and nephews. These grants were administered through the Office of Naval Research over the course of several years (1999-2002) via earmarks that Representative John Murtha placed in the Department of Defense Appropriations/ Authorization acts at the behest of Representative Kanjorski. ONR did not request this money nor did they know how to spend it. The agency had to call congressional staff to inquire as to how the money was to be spent. ONR was directed to Cornerstone Technologies by congressional staff.

In August 2000, roughly a year after the first contract was awarded. Mr. Kanjorski and his chief of Staff, Karen Feather, were summoned to the firm’s office in order to oversee a dispute between Cornerstone’s EO Bruce Conrad and CFO Peter Kanjorski, the congressman’s nephew.

According to Scranton times- Tribune, Thomas Unger, a former senior vice president at Cornerstone, said in published interviews in 2002 that Mr. Kanjorski took an active role at Cornerstone and acted “like a CEO.”

Cornerstone filed for bankruptcy on September 26, 2006. For its $9 million investment, the only product that the Navy reeived from Cornerstone was several hundred pages of final reports and supporting documents.

The Ethics Manual Code of Ethics for government Service, passed by both houses and adhered to by all government employees, including elected officials, states that a government employee shall:

Never discriminate unfairly by the dispensing of special favors or privileges to anyone, whether for remuneration or not; and never accept for himself or his family, favors or benefits under circumstances which might be construed by reasonable persons as influencing the performance of his government duties. (Code of Ethics for Government Service, Clause 5)

Dave Janoski, The Times- Tribune, 6/3/2007

Dave Janoski, The Citizen’s Voice, 6/3/2007

Jeff Miller and David Slade, The Morning Call, 10/31/2002

Dave Janoski, The Times- Tribune, 6/3/2007