4/12/21

Shafai lands Republicans in more pay-to-play building schemes

Yes, socialized agriculture, socialized dairies, socialized cheese, socialized livestock production, a socialized timber industry, socialized air service, socialized freight rail, a socialized nursing home industry, a socialized internet and now socialized gas well remediation are all fine with Republicans in South Dakota but then they insist single-payer medical insurance is socialized medicine. 

Hani Shafai is going to build the new VA facility. Future Fund recipient Shafai has plucked myriad cushy plums in Pennington County and has showered Republicans with generous campaign contributions. Shafai gave thousands maybe millions to the Governor’s Club and received millions from the Future Fund. Revenue generated with contractors’ excise tax goes into the Future Fund which became Mike Rounds’ slush fund of choice as a pay-to-play tool. Rounds showered some $75 million on cronies without ever disclosing who they were.

The 2015 Governor’s Club Pheasant Hunt photo is a Who’s Who of Republican crony capitalism. In the middle standing beside Gov. Denny Daugaard is Hani Shafai. In 2016 Shafai's President's Plaza development project collapsed. In 2018 Muslim Shafai hosted a fundraiser for Dusty Johnson and offered to 'give back' land to the tribes that was seized from them after the Fort Laramie Treaty was abrogated by Congress and gold discovered in the Black Hills. Hani Shafai, Denny Sanford, Frank Farrar, the Husteads, Stan Adelstein and Neal Wanless come to mind as the few individuals who are subject to the estate tax in South Dakota. 

Shafai's name keeps popping up in searches into the scandal surrounding the Daugaard/Children's Home Society campaign donation circle culminating in the disappearance of Serenity Dennard.

How this culture of corruption scandal is not racketeering remains a mystery.



No comments: