Senator Hassan Calls Out McKinsey’s Relationship with Russian Weapons Maker

WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, NBC highlighted Senator Hassan’s remarks calling out McKinsey for its pattern of behavior that risks grave conflicts of interests in a recent report. The NBC story shared that McKinsey held contracts with Russian state-owned enterprise Rostec while also carrying out sensitive national security contracts for the Defense Department and the U.S. intelligence community.

“Whether it be the substance misuse crisis or work for state-owned enterprises in places like Russia and China, I am deeply concerned by McKinsey’s choices and by the fact that the U.S. government continues to contract with McKinsey despite those potential conflicts,” the Senator Hassan said.

Senator Hassan has led efforts dating back to last year to hold McKinsey responsible for potential conflicts of interest when contracting with the federal government and fueling the substance misuse crisis. During the Senator’s questioning at a Senate hearing last month, a top FDA official announced that the FDA has stopped issuing contracts to McKinsey pending ongoing investigations into potential conflicts of interest. Prior to that, the Senator led her colleagues in calling for a Health and Human Services Inspector General investigation on the FDA’s work with McKinsey and FDA’s contracting policies.

Click here or see below for excerpts from NBC News:

NBC News: McKinsey & Co. worked with Russian weapons maker even as it advised Pentagon

By Dan De Luce and Yasmine Salam

Russia has fired more than 2,000 missiles on Ukraine since invading in February. The engines for many of these missiles were manufactured by a massive state-owned enterprise called Rostec, and executives for that company hired the global consulting giant McKinsey & Co. in recent years for advice. 

At the same time McKinsey was advising the Russian defense conglomerate, though not on any work directly involving weapons, the firm was carrying out sensitive national security contracts for the Defense Department and the U.S. intelligence community, according to an NBC News investigation.

McKinsey has come under scrutiny in Congress for its work with state-owned companies in China, with lawmakers questioning if the company should be awarded national security-related contracts given its extensive presence in China. McKinsey also faces accusations of ignoring possible conflicts of interest when it advised both opioid manufacturers and officials regulating opioids at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

[…] Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., told NBC News that McKinsey has displayed a “pattern of behavior” in its consulting abroad and in Washington that raised “grave concerns about conflicts of interest.”

“Whether it be the substance misuse crisis or work for state-owned enterprises in places like Russia and China, I am deeply concerned by McKinsey’s choices and by the fact that the U.S. government continues to contract with McKinsey despite those potential conflicts,” the senator said.

But the company, which has its headquarters in New York, says it does not see its recent work in Russia as posing a conflict with its consulting for the Pentagon and other federal agencies. […]

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