The Trail

ALLEGATION INVOLVES WIFE

Reporters on the Obama plane listen to a conference call about the race. (By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post)
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Coleman Assails Suit

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) on Friday denounced as "sleazy politics" a lawsuit alleging that one of the senator's largest donors steered $75,000 from a Texas oil services company to a Minneapolis consulting firm where Coleman's wife works.

Coming just days before a tough reelection race, Coleman called a news conference in Moorhead, Minn., to deny the allegations in the lawsuit and to predict that voters would "reject it out of hand" as an attempt to influence his race against Democrat Al Franken.

"Let me be clear: Each and every allegation in this lawsuit relating to me and my wife is false and defamatory. . . . If my opponents have any shred of decency left in this campaign, stop attacking my family," Coleman said.

Paul McKim, the founder of Deep Marine Technology, a Houston company providing services for offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, filed a suit Monday in a Harris County, Tex., court alleging that Nasser Kazeminy engaged in several instances of corporate fraud. Kazeminy, whose family has contributed almost $40,000 to political committees controlled by Coleman in the past two years, is the chief executive of a Minneapolis investment company, which began seeding McKim's company with millions of dollars in 2004.

By early 2007, at which point Kazeminy effectively controlled Deep Marine Technology, he demanded that company officials start making payments to Hays Companies, a consulting firm working on insurance and employee benefits that has employed Laurie Coleman since 2006, McKim's lawsuit alleges.

The suit alleges that the company performed no services but received $75,000 in three payments through Kazeminy's efforts. "He was going to find a way to get money to United States Senator Norm Coleman," McKim's lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit is the latest twist in a race that will help determine whether Democrats reach their goal of a filibuster-proof majority of 60 Senate seats. Coleman had denied accepting free suits from Kazeminy and has defended as fair-market value the $600 a month he pays in rent for an English basement apartment on Capitol Hill owned by one of his political consultants.

Franken, the former comedian running his first political campaign, had to pay back taxes and penalties after it was revealed that he did not pay withholding taxes for employees of his radio program earlier in the decade.

Casey Wallace, McKim's lawyer, filed the suit Monday but then withdrew it. In an interview, Wallace said it was withdrawn so the two parties could pursue settlement negotiations, which have since fallen apart. He refiled the suit Thursday. The Senate race was not a motivation behind the suit, he said.

Bruce C. Gilman, who became chief executive in September after McKim was ousted, said the company had "immediately" hired an outside law firm to investigate all fraud claims from McKim. "Deep Marine Holdings is taking this matter very seriously," Gilman said in a statement, adding that no "evidence of wrongdoing" has been found.

Hays Companies issued a statement denouncing the lawsuit and saying Laurie Coleman is a licensed insurance agent. "We are pleased with her work, and we find any allegations that she accepted money for work she was not responsible for to be outrageous and contemptible," the company said.