Lobbyist brother of Biden counselor Steve Ricchetti has raked in $1.6million in fees since the start of the year, records show
Jeff Ricchetti is the owner of DC-based lobbying firm Ricchetti, Inc.
The lobbyist brother of one of Joe Biden's most senior advisers has had his best revenue year in over a decade, raking in $1,670,000 since the start of 2021, public records show.
Jeff Ricchetti, owner of DC-based firm Ricchetti Inc., is the brother of Steve Ricchetti, a close Biden confidante who was named Counselor to the President in January after chairing Biden's 2020 campaign.
Ricchetti Inc.'s profits in the first half of 2021 have already surpassed the entire previous year's profits of roughly $1.2 million.
Profits more than quadrupled in the first quarter of 2021 over the same time last year.
Jeff Ricchetti's brother Steve Ricchetti has been a confidante of Joe Biden for years and has worked with him under the Obama administration
The company failed to even break $1 million in the first three years of Donald Trump's White House term.
Clients of Ricchetti Inc. also soared from just four companies in 2019 to 14 in 2020, the year Biden was elected. It rose again to 15 in 2021.
Also the year Biden got elected, the lobbying firm snagged top-tier clients like Amazon, General Motors, biopharmaceuticals giant Horizon Therapeutics and financial security firm Finseca.
The amount Amazon paid Ricchetti Inc. for services shot up from $60,000 in 2020 to $180,000. Horizon Therapeutics' costs also rose from $130,000 to $160,000.
According to Linkedin the company raking in more than a million dollars in six months is only comprised of four employees.
The lobbying firm boasts 15 clients in the first half of 2021, up from 14 in all of 2020 and significantly more than the four companies it worked for in 2019
Steve Ricchetti and Biden's relationship working in the executive branch together goes back to when he was appointed as counselor to the vice president in 2012, and later became his chief of staff under Obama
Finesca advertised an event on the site three months ago highlighting Jeff Ricchetti as a guest speaker.
The listing promoted him and a company executive aiming to 'brainstorm and break down the current state of various federal tax policy proposals' - something his White House official brother likely knows intimately.
Richetti, Inc. was started in 2001 by both brothers after Steve Ricchetti left the White House where he worked under Bill Clinton. Jeff Ricchetti took over operations when his brother went back to the White House under Barack Obama.
Steve Ricchetti and Biden's relationship working in the executive branch together goes back to when he was appointed as counselor to the vice president in 2012 - when he deregistered as a lobbyist but reportedly continued to oversee Richetti Inc. with his brother, according to the Washington Post.
It's not the first time Ricchetti and his family have caused an ethics headache for the White House
He later became Biden's chief of staff when he was vice president.
More recently he's posed ethics headaches for the Biden administration when Press Secretary Jen Psaki had to defend the White House for hiring a slew of senior officials' relatives, including Steve Ricchetti's three children.
Psaki was asked in a late June briefing about safeguards the White House has in place to prevent preferential hiring of family members.
'We have the highest ethical standards of any administration in history,' Psaki said. 'A number of ethics officials have conveyed that and we're proud of that.'
'We have also staffed up at an unprecedented pace and this is the most diverse administration in American history.'