The Rastetter Emails

On Wednesday, June 13, CCI received a cache of emails relating to the controversy surrounding Regent Bruce Rastetter's attempts to abuse his position to establish a partnership between Iowa State University and his company AgriSol Energy.

Last year, the news came out that Bruce Rastetter, Governor Branstad's biggest campaign donor, may have used his political influence as a member of the Iowa Board of Regents to broker a partnership between Iowa State University and his company AgriSol Energy. The deal would have implicated the University -- and by extension the people of Iowa -- in a massive land-grab in Tanzania that would have displaced 160,000 refugee farmers, while investors like Rastetter stood to make millions from the project.

Rastetter's dual role as a Regent and a venture capitalist created a clear conflict of interest, but Rastetter hid his financial interest from the public for as long as he could. The people of Iowa deserve to see all the emails relating to this scandal

.That is why today we have posted these documents online for anyone to download.

They are in the four separate files below, just as we received them
.Rastetter emails1
Rastetter emails2
Rastetter emails3
Rastetter emails4
 Rastetter emails5

Unfortunately, the emails are not in chronological order. We have read through most of the emails and uncovered some important content, including a mention of CCI and details about how closely Iowa State officials worked with Rastetter.

We need your help! The more eyes we have looking through these documents, the more light we can shed on this controversy. Read through the emails above, and let us know what you find.

We have also started a petition calling for Governor Branstad to fire Bruce Rastetter in the light of this misconduct.