White House counselor Steve Ricchetti’s brother, Jeff Ricchetti, plans to lobby on behalf of a foreign company that developed a vaccine for the coronavirus.
Medigen Vaccine Biologics, a Taiwan-based company, hired Ricchetti to work on “issues related to Covid-19 vaccines accepted for foreign travelers to the United States,” according to CNBC.
Medigen developed a coronavirus vaccine, but Taiwan is currently the only country to approve its use. Medigen hopes Ricchetti will lead a successful effort to get the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve its vaccine for Taiwanese travelers coming into the United States.
Charles Chen, Chief Executive Officer of Taiwan’s vaccine maker Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (MVC), poses for photographs with a vaccine sample at its headquarters in Taipei on June 16, 2021. (Photo by SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images)
Ricchetti is the sole lobbyist working on the account.
According to CNBC, “Ricchetti has seen a wave of new clients since the start of the new administration.”
He made national headlines last year after lobbying the White House on behalf of Amazon and large health care companies like GlaxoSmithKline, Horizon Therapeutics, and Vaxart Inc. However, in light of Ricchetti’s connection to the Biden administration, he said he does not lobby his brother or disclose the two’s relationship to his clients.
“I do not lobby my brother and I have not even mentioned to him the names of clients that I currently represent,” he said in April. “For the better part of the last thirty years I have lobbied members of Congress and their staff, and various individuals who have served in the successive administrations. It is what I do for a living.”
Ricchetti also said he would no longer engage directly with White House officials on behalf of his clients.
Jeff and his brother Steve started a lobbying firm in 1996 but sold it to Tony Podesta in 1999 after Steve became deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House.