ブルームバーグ陣営、電話での選挙運動を受刑者に外注　米報道

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】2020年米大統領選の民主党候補指名争いに参戦する富豪のマイケル・ブルームバーグ前ニューヨーク市長の陣営が、第三者企業を通じて、電話での選挙運動をコールセンターで働く受刑者らに外注していたことが分かった。米ニュースサイト「インターセプト」が24日、報じた。（写真はマイケル・ブルームバーグ前ニューヨーク市長）
　ブルームバーグ氏は報道内容について「基本的に正しい」と認め、同氏の選挙陣営が関連企業との関係をすでに断ったと明らかにした。
　インターセプトによると、ブルームバーグ氏の選挙陣営は第三者企業を通じ、ニュージャージー州を拠点とするコールセンター会社「プロコム」と契約。同社がニュージャージー州とオクラホマ州に展開するコールセンターのうち２か所は、州刑務所で運営されている。
　オクラホマ州にある少なくとも１か所の軽警備女子刑務所では、受刑者らがブルームバーグ氏の選挙陣営に代わって電話をかける契約が結ばれていたという。
　ブルームバーグ氏は、自身の選挙陣営はこの報道の担当記者から電話を受けて初めて状況を把握したと述べ、どの企業の下請け業者が関係していたのか分かり次第、その業者や雇用者らとの関係を終了したと発表。「われわれはこうした慣行を支持しておらず、委託先が今後、下請け業者をより適切に審査するよう努めている」と述べた。
　ブルームバーグ氏は１１月後半になって、次期大統領選でドナルド・トランプ氏に挑む民主党候補の指名争いへの出馬を表明。
　米経済誌フォーブスによると、ブルームバーグ氏の資産は５４０億ドル（約５兆９０００円）超。同氏はこの個人資産をオンラインやテレビでの選挙広告につぎ込んでいる。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2019/12/26-08:22）

Billionaire US presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg used prison labor to make calls for his campaign, investigative website The Intercept reported on Tuesday.
Bloomberg called the report fundamentally accurate and said his campaign had already ended its relationship with the company involved.
The Intercept reported that the former New York mayor's campaign contracted, through a third-party vendor, the ProCom call center company based in New Jersey.
ProCom runs call centers in New Jersey as well as Oklahoma, where two of its call centers operate from state prisons, The Intercept said.
In at least one of those Oklahoma prisons, a minimum-security women's facility, inmates were contracted to make calls on behalf of the Bloomberg campaign, according to the report.
Bloomberg said his campaign only learned about this situation when the reporter on the story called them.
But as soon as we discovered which vendor's subcontractor had done this, we immediately ended our relationship with the company and the people who hired them, he said in a statement.
We do not support this practice and we are making sure our vendors more properly vet their subcontractors moving forward.
Months after frontrunners Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, Bloomberg announced in late November his candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination to challenge Donald Trump in next year's presidential election.
Bloomberg has a net worth of more than $54 billion, according to Forbes.
He is using that personal fortune to spend heavily on online and TV ad campaigns, and his campaign is skipping crucial states long toiled in by less well-off rivals.
The Intercept said it asked Stephen McQuaid, a director of business development at ProCom, whether the company had done work for Bloomberg.
To my knowledge we are not, and nor have I ever heard that we were making any dials for the Bloomberg campaign or on behalf of them through someone else, nor have I heard that we (are) currently making them, but I am not in a position to know every campaign that is going, he was quoted as saying.