"Public Intellectuals" Don't Come Cheap

After billionaire insurance mogul Maurice "Hank" Greenberg was charged with fraud and insurance and securities violations, he hired the eSapience PR firm — whose executives include the dean of MIT's Sloan School of Management — to buff up his image. Now eSapience is suing Greenberg for unpaid bills. The lawsuit states that eSapience executives "set up a new think tank, the Barbon Institute, specifically to provide a credible-sounding new platform for Greenberg" to give an "image-rehabilitating speech." Greenberg is disputing $2 million in charges racked up by eSapience executives who billed him $400 to $1,000 hourly — rates that they said "reflected the level of detail, sophistication, and status necessary to present Greenberg in the best light and to assure the presence and participation of key intellectual and public figures."