Just three days after Senator Susan Collins participated in the dedication of a new memorial to honor the service of Maine’s veterans, she took campaign cash from a communications executive who has faced widespread criticism for fleecing U.S. service members.
According to Collins’ latest FEC filing, she accepted $1000 from Gregorio Galicot on July 7th, after previously accepting $1,050 from Galicot earlier in this election cycle. Galicot is the Managing Director of BBG Communications, which faced a class action lawsuit from U.S. service members over charging exorbitant rates on phone calls for returning troops.
The class action alleged that Galicot’s company was price gouging the rates to make phone calls on payphones located in a troops-only airport lounge in Germany. One soldier was charged $41 for a four second call while others were asked to pay $265 to leave a voicemail and $84 for two calls that lasted only 4 minutes.
“Yet again we see Senator Collins saying one thing to Mainers and doing another when behind closed doors with her corporate backers,” said Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Lisa Roberts. “If she were serious about honoring our service members, she would stop taking campaign checks from the people who are in the business of ripping them off.”
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