Lobbying letters to Perriello found to be fakes

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- As U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th, was considering how to vote on an important piece of climate-change legislation in June, the freshman congressman's office received at least six letters from two Charlottesville-based minority organizations voicing opposition to the measure.

The letters, as it turns out, were forgeries. And now, a top congressman has launched an investigation into the matter.

"They stole our name. They stole our logo. They created a position title and made up the name of someone to fill it. They forged a letter and sent it to our congressman without our authorization," said Tim Freilich, who sits on the executive committee of Creciendo Juntos, a nonprofit network that tackles issues related to Charlottesville's Hispanic community.

The faked letter from Creciendo Juntos was signed by "Marisse K. Acevado, Asst Member Coordinator," an identity and position at Creciendo Juntos that do not exist.

The person who sent the letter has not been identified, but was employed by the Washington lobbying firm, Bonner & Associates.

Gwynn Geiger Hegyi, a partner with the company, traveled to Charlottesville to apologize to Creciendo Juntos' chairwoman Dilcia Colindres and sent a letter to Freilich.

"As I shared with Dilcia when I traveled to Charlottesville last month to personally apologize for the mistake which we discovered and contacted you about, we immediately fired the person on our staff responsible for the error," Hegyi wrote on July 22.

Hegyi and others at Bonner & Associates have not returned several phone calls seeking comment. Company founder Jack Bonner blamed a temporary worker, according to The Associated Press.

In a letter notifying Perriello's office about the matter, Freilich wrote, "This was not a 'mistake.'" Freilich, who is also legal director of the Immigrant Advocacy Program of the Legal Aid Justice Center, added, "This was a deliberately and carefully forged letter that used the logo, address and name of Creciendo Juntos without authorization."

Perriello staffers found five more forged letters, these purportedly from the Albemarle-Charlottesville branch of the NAACP.

M. Rick Turner, president of the local NAACP branch, said he checked his organization's roster and found none of the five people who signed their name to the five fake letters.

"I hope that whoever's behind this will be brought to justice," Turner said.

In fact, Turner said, the NAACP supports the legislation at issue -- the American Clean Energy and Security Act, also known as "cap and trade" -- as he said it would create good-paying jobs for blacks and reduce harmful emissions, particularly in urban areas.

The fake NAACP letters were faxed to Perriello's office from the Arlington headquarters of a company called Professional Risk Management Services Inc. A representative of the company said she had no knowledge of why the fax would have been sent from her office, adding that at least 60 employees have access to the fax machine.

Perriello's press secretary, Jessica Barba, said the congressman's office knows of only the five forged letters, but there may be others they have not yet discovered.

With regards to the Creciendo Juntos letter, it is not known who -- if anyone -- hired Bonner & Associates to lobby against the bill. .

Brian McNeill is a staff writer for The Daily Progress in Charlottesville.