MORE CORRUPTION NEWS
Jan 26, 2009, 5:37 pm, Wall Street Journal
Halliburton
Breaks FCPA Settlement Record for U.S. Companies Posted by Dan Slate
Last month, Siemens broke a record for
settlements under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, when it settled for $800
million almost 20 times higher than the largest previous penalty under the
FCPA. Today, according to the WSJ, Halliburton is setting the record for a U.S.
company in a bribery investigation. Its agreed to pay $559 million to the U.S.
to settle charges that one of its former units bribed Nigerian officials during
the construction of a gas plant. (Heres more from the FCPA blog.) The investigation stems from the construction of a giant
liquefied natural gas plant on the Nigerian coast near Port Harcourt from 1996 through the
mid-2000s. The U.S.
investigation has grown from a narrow focus on that facility to include a
broader look at whether Halliburton executives coordinated bids with unnamed
competitors involving multiple construction projects in different countries,
according to Halliburton filings. http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/01/26/halliburton-breaks-fcpa-settlement-record-for-us-companies/?mod=googlenews_wsj
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WHY IS AMERICA
SO CORRUPT?
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 
By Bill O'Reilly
It is worse than the Watergate years. It is worse than the Clinton scandals.
Corruption in America
at this very moment has reached critical mass. We are talking about financial
and political wrongdoing, and here is just a partial list:
Illinois
Governor Blagojevich is about to be thrown out of office and could be indicted
by the feds on corruption charges.
Former head of the New York State
Senate, Joseph Bruno, indicted by the feds on corruption charges.
The head of the Massachusetts
House, Sal DiMasi, the guy who blocked Jessica's law,
has quit under pressure from a corruption investigation.
Citigroup, nearly bankrupt and getting our tax dollars,
orders a $50 million private jet, according to the New York Post.
Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain
gives his cronies millions in bonuses, all the while knowing his company is
going down the drain. Then Thain allegedly spends
more than a million bucks decorating his office. He was fired last week by the
Bank of America,
which took over Merrill.
Former head of the bankrupt brokerage Lehman Brothers,
Richard Fuld, sold his $13 million Florida home to his wife for $100.
The list goes on and on.
And then there's Barney Frank securing $12 million taxpayer
dollars to prop up his favorite bank. You are not going to believe what this
bank is doing.
Again, why is this happening? Simple answer is greed.
Complicated answer is the failure of the feds to challenge financial fat cats
in any meaningful way. That has allowed the crooks to become very bold.
Blagojevich is a great example of that. Here is a guy caught
on a federal wiretap asking for stuff in return for appointing a person to take
Barack Obama's Senate seat.
But instead of defending himself at his own impeachment trial, he whines to the
media: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,483624,00.html
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NJ AG notes
big increase in criminal case volume
January 27, 2009 TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey's attorney
general says criminal prosecutions by the state's Division of Criminal Justice
increased by 47 percent in 2008. Attorney
General Anne Milgram announced Tuesday that the
division filed 966 cases by indictment or accusation in 2008. They involve more
than 1,200 defendants. Deborah L. Gramiccioni (grah-muh-chee-OH-nee),
director of the criminal justice division, said the agency's top priorities
continue to be prosecuting corruption and fighting gangs. Gang and organized crime prosecutions
increased by 107 percent last year, from 109 to 226. The number of corruption
cases brought rose from 53 to 64. Milgram
specifically cited the division's successful prosecution of several high
profile cases, including its work with federal authorities in the corruption
conviction of former Newark Mayor Sharpe James and
prison sentences for 25 members of the violent Sex Money Murder set of the Bloods street gang.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--ag-criminalcases0127jan27,0,2568668.story
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Chancellor
Expresses Outrage at Public Corruption of Judges By: PR Newswire Jan. 27, 2009 10:38 AM PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 27
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On behalf of the
Philadelphia Bar Association, Chancellor Sayde Ladov expressed outrage at the news of public corruption by
two judges in Luzerne County, PA, including the President Judge. According to federal prosecutors, the pair
participated in a $2.6 million scheme to defraud taxpayers by taking kickbacks
related to the construction of juvenile detention facilities in Luzerne County
and elsewhere. Yesterday, the two judges pled guilty to public corruption and
were sentenced to serve more than seven years in federal prison, according to
Associated Press reports. http://au.sys-con.com/node/821248
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Corruption
investigation to continue through '09
Jan 4, 2009, By Ramon Bracamontes / El Paso Times , More on public corruption
EL PASO - Any questions about the seriousness or depth of
the FBI's ongoing public corruption case were answered in 2008 when a federal
judge disclosed under court order that 12 separate investigations involving
more than 80 persons of interest were under way. The investigations, according to various court
documents, revolve around government contracts issued by the county, city,
school districts and the community college, and federal contracts given to the
National Center for the Employment of the Disabled, or NCED, once one of the
city's largest employers.
"The investigation began in the summer of 2004 and has
allegedly uncovered systemic and wide-spread public corruption and other
fraudulent activities directed by individuals with the greater El
Paso community," U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo wrote in May. "To date, the FBI has seized
over 2,300 boxes of evidence from the execution of various search warrants and
consensual searches."
Montalvo also wrote that of the persons of interest
being investigated, "35 are past or current public officials, either
elected or appointed, 13 are attorneys, and three are or were judges." "These individuals represent a wide
cross-section of the greater El Paso
area, and in many cases," the judge wrote, "are prominent community
figures." So far, nine people have
pleaded guilty to various fraud and bribery charges in the investigation,
including three who pleaded in 2008. Toward the end of the year, three prominent
El Paso
businessmen and one former school board trustee were indicted. Salvador
"Sal" Mena Jr., a former El Paso Independent
School District trustee,
was indicted in August on bribery and fraud charges. He is scheduled to go to
trial March 30. If Mena goes to trial, he will be the
first person arrested in this case to do so. Continued at
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_11364480?source=most_emailed
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