February 11, 2015
ROOTING OUT CORRUPTION
IN CONNECTICUT
*****
FEDS WILL DO WHAT STATE
LEGISLATORS WILL NOT
*****
Feds Want to Hear from You!
A
special corruption tip hotline will be answered around the clock at
1-800-CALL-FBI and callers can remain anonymous if they chose.
From: The Federation of
Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations
Contact: Susan Kniep, President
Website:
http://ctact.org/
Email: fctopresident@aol.com
Telephone:
860-841-8032
For years Connecticut
has been plagued with the disease of corruption which continues to spread among
public officials throughout the state making taxpayers sick as inevitably
public crime involves public (taxpayer) money.
Connecticut
taxpayers pay the second highest property taxes in the nation.
Several years ago, the Feds rooted out corruption in
Connecticut in such high profile cases as that of former Bridgeport Mayor
Joseph Ganim, former State Treasurer Paul Silvester, and former Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano as
Connecticut lacked the proper tools to do so.
All ultimately were found guilty and sent to federal prison.
In 2003 and 2004, I wrote several articles which addressed
the failure of Connecticut’s
elected public officials to keep corruption in check. One article was captioned CONNECTICUT’S
CULTURE OF CORRUPTION noting “Connecticut’s culture of
corruption is systematically being unraveled by the Federal
government. “Emerging is a surreptitious system of quid-pro-quo politics
and pay-to-play schemes where taxpayers are the ultimate victims in a
government void of ethics” http://ctact.org/default.asp?callcontent=yes&filename=FCTOCulture.htm%20&location=Editorials&buttonname=Editorials
The other was captioned Connecticuts
Shell Game with Taxpayer Money
noting The "cook the books" scheme by Enron and the accounting firm
of Arthur Andersen went undetected by government officials who had been blinded
to the company's meltdown by Enron's glitzy campaign money machine.
Who knew that clandestine conspiracies were running amuck among the corporate
elite who were inflating profits and siphoning of millions? Not the Connecticut taxpayers who lost $220 million in the
Enron-CRRA deal because Connecticut elected
officials failed to provide oversight or worse. Yet,
the Enron debacle of yesterday is not unlike what's going on in your State
government today. http://ctact.org/default.asp?callcontent=yes&filename=FCTOEdShellGame.htm&location=Editorials&buttonname=Editorials
Again, those articles were written in 2003 and 2004. At the risk of repeating myself
“the Enron debacle of yesterday is not unlike what's going on in your State
government today”.
Except, the Feds are back.
Last week we learned that U.S.
Attorney Deirdre M. Daly rode into Connecticut with a posse
of Federal investigators ready to investigate, expose, and prosecute those who
perpetuate public corruption and their partners in crime. The Hartford
Courant headline lends further insight. U.S. Forms New Team To Fight "Persistent,"
"High-Profile" Corruption In Connecticut!
The mystery now is what will the Feds
uncover!
The keys to rooting out public sector corruption include
grand juries.
For years, the limited powers of Connecticut’s State
prosecutors have been stymied by the state legislature’s refusal to “provide
state prosecutor's with the legal tools and authority used in every other state
in the country by investigators pressing usually complex corruption cases” as
noted by U.S. Attorney Daly.
But U.S.
Attorney Daly is not the first to criticize the State legislature when stating
"They don't have a viable grand jury system, which hampers their ability
to do complex cases. “I can't think of any other state that is handicapped in
that way."
In 2003, the editorial staff of the Hartford
Courant suggested Give Them Subpoena Power - Hartford Courant . The Courant noted
….. “As did his predecessor, John M. Bailey, Chief State's Attorney Christopher
Morano is asking for a law establishing an
investigative subpoena. “Connecticut's
prosecutors may be the only ones in the nation without that power. “For the
sake of law and order here, the prosecutors should have it.” Read article at ….. http://articles.courant.com/2003-03-27/news/0303270305_1_political-corruption-subpoena-power-grand-jury
More recently, in an April, 2013 CTNewsJunkie.com article,
it was noted that “Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Kane has argued for years that
prosecutors should have broader subpoena powers in criminal investigations. “He
said the current process in Connecticut
is so stringent that prosecutors rarely apply for a grand jury.” Continue reading at ….. http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/archives/entry/chief_public_defender_says_expanded_subpoena_power_would_violate_constituti/
And it was apparent that Connecticut lacked
the tools to conduct their own investigations as recently as 2014 when it was noted by the Hartford
Courant More Federal Subpoenas In
Hartford Charter School Probe noting “City and state educators said Monday that they had
been served with subpoenas by a federal grand jury examining the expenditure of
millions of dollars in public money by the troubled charter school management
company FUSE. Read
the report in its entirety at …..http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-fuse-0722-20140721-story.html
In 2012, the State
legislature again failed the taxpayers of Connecticut as the public learned
of Federal wire taps and listening devices the Feds used to facilitate their
investigation as headlines read Chris Donovan's finance
director arrested by feds, campaign ... manager fired.
Donovan, then Democrat speaker of the state House of
Representatives, ultimately resigned from office but was never implicate. However, several who worked on his campaign
to include a high ranking union official were ultimately prosecuted and found
guilty.
In Dec 2014, CTNewsJunkie.com reported “Former Speaker of
the House Chris Donovan, who has struggled to find employment since losing a
2012 congressional primary to U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty,
has landed a job with the Connecticut
Education Association.”
In 2012, we also learned that the Feds Raid Anti-Poverty Agency
Offices For 2nd Straight Day. Jon Lender of the Hartford
Courant noted “The depth and intensity of this week's raid by federal
authorities on the Community Renewal Team's Hartford headquarters was only starting to
emerge Friday, as about 50 government agents executed a second search warrant
and seized records for a second straight day in an ongoing criminal
investigation”. Read more at http://articles.courant.com/2012-04-20/news/hc-day2-crt-raid-0421-20120420_1_crt-federal-agents-nancy-pappas
The status of the raid and
the results, if any, have yet to be published.
Recently,
Federal cases involving former Governor Rowland and former State Senator Ernie Newton, have been making
headlines. Both bad boys had served time
in the Federal pen compliments of Federal prosecutors. And in a hard to believe but true
scenario, it appears neither were
rehabbed, again committed a crime and are heading back to serve more time.
But let’s look at the Feds recent success in a high profile
case in New York. Kevin Rennie, a
columnist for the Hartford Courant, provides some insight his article captioned
Follow The Favors, From Money
To Corruption.
Rennie’s article references the Moreland Commission
initially established by NY Gov Cuomo to investigate corruption in his State
until it got too close for comfort.
At that time, the public got a hint that tools like the Feds
wiretap in the Donovan scandal in
Connecticut or someone willing to help - such as in the New York case – can set
the stage for the Feds bringing a corruption case to a successful
conclusion.
And that it did in
New York as last month, a New York Post headline read Friend, lobbyist helped feds
take down Sheldon Silver | New ... noting “A veteran
lobbyist with longstanding ties to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver helped the feds bust the powerful pol in a multimillion-dollar bribery
and kickback scheme, sources
told The Post on Friday”. Continue
reading at … http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/23/nyregion/speaker-of-new-york-assembly-sheldon-silver-is-arrested-in-corruption-case.html?_r=1
You may ask who is Sheldon Silver? In a New York Times article captioned Sheldon Silver, Assembly
Speaker, Took Millions in Payoffs ...
the Feds noted that “Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the New York Assembly, exploited his
position as one of the most powerful politicians in the state to obtain
millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks, federal authorities said on
Thursday as they announced his arrest on a sweeping series of corruption charges.” Continue reading
at …. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/23/nyregion/speaker-of-new-york-assembly-sheldon-silver-is-arrested-in-corruption-case.html?_r=0
And if you are a proponent of Term Limits, put this one in
your file. Sheldon Silver was first
elected to office in 1994.
Now let’s return to Connecticut.
As the Feds recently reminded us, Connecticugt
does not “have a viable grand jury system, which hampers their ability to do
complex cases”. As such we have had to
rely upon the investigate branches of the Federal government to bring our
public officials to justice.
Of the many cases the Feds brought to trial back ten years
ago or more one involved former State Treasurer Paul Sylvester as noted within
the New York Times article By STACEY STOWE of Oct 18, 2003 captioned Ex- Treasurer of Connecticut
Tells of Life in Jail -... . which can be found at web link https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=ie7&q=Ex-+Treasurer+of+Connecticut+Tells+of+Life+in+Jail+-...+.&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-Address&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7TSNA_enUS372US372&gws_rd=ssl
The United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut
announced that CHARLES B. SPADONI, 63, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, formerly
of Connecticut, was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge
Ellen Bree Burns in New Haven to 24 months of
imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release. Judge Burns also
ordered SPADONI to pay a fine in the amount of $50,000.
According to the evidence presented during a trial in this
matter, SPADONI was the general counsel of Triumph Capital Group Inc. (“Triumph
Capital”). In November 1998, shortly after former Connecticut State Treasurer
Paul J. Silvester had lost his bid for re-election,
SPADONI, Silvester and others engaged in a scheme
through which two of Silvester’s close associates
received from Triumph Capital sham “consulting contracts” worth $1 million each
in return for the investment of $200 million of state pension assets in a
Triumph Capital-related investment fund, Triumph Connecticut-II. Read more at http://www.fbi.gov/newhaven/press-releases/2011/lawyer-involved-in-connecticut-treasurers-office-scandal-sentenced-to-two-years-in-federal-prison
Also, in 2003 the Feds took down a former Mayor, as highlighted by the New York Times article
captioned Ex-Mayor Gets
37 Years In Prison for Abusing 2 Girls -... noting “Philip
A. Giordano, a former three-term mayor of Waterbury and a United States Senate
candidate, was sentenced today to 37 years in federal prison …..” Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/14/nyregion/ex-mayor-gets-37-years-in-prison-for-abusing-2-girls.html.
In 2013 it was reported that, as Giordano remains in prison
today, Giordano Seeks To Have Conviction Overturned -..... continue
reading at web link
http://articles.courant.com/2013-05-06/news/hc-giordano-hearing-20130506_1_jury-andrew-bowman-attorney
In 2004, Federal investigations also helped to unravel the
crimes of former Governor John Rowland which ultimately drove Rowland from the
Governor’s office into a Federal prison.
However, his near year stint in Federal prison did not deter him from
committing another crime as highlighted by the New Haven register in September,
2014 in their article captioned Former Connecticut Governor John Rowland found guilty
on 7 Counts of Corruption.
In January, 2015 the Hartford
courant reported Rowland Sentencing Postponed While He Presses Claim
of Withheld Evidence. But while
taxpayers in Connecticut become poor in our overly taxed state, Rowland's $52,000 annual pension intact despite 2nd
conviction on corruption charges as reported by the New Haven Register. ...
The Feds also brought down another politician by the name of
Ernie Newton. Newton
of Bridgeport had served in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1988 to 2003 and
the Connecticut State Senate from 2003 to 2006.
In Feb, 2010 we read Ex-Sen. Newton released from prison; enters halfway....House. The
article notes that “Newton, a powerful figure from the city's East Side for
more than two decades, was imprisoned after pleading guilty in September 2005
to charges of taking a $5,000 bribe, using campaign donations to pay his own
expenses and evading federal income taxes by not reporting the money he
illegally took. “He was released Wednesday from the federal prison camp in
Lewisburg, Pa., according to Edmond Ross, a spokesman for
the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. The article continues at http://www.newstimes.com/default/article/Ex-Sen-Newton-released-from-prison-enters-371293.php
But here too, like Rowland, Newton again resorted to criminal
activity as recently reported by blog.ctnews.com that Ernie Newton found guilty of campaign finance fraud -
CT.... noting “Sentencing set for March 13. “The conviction also means Newton is in violation of his federal
probation”. Read more at http://blog.ctnews.com/politics/2015/01/16/ernie-newton-found-guilty-of-campaign-finance-fraud/
In 2003, the Feds also brought down Joseph Ganim,
the then Bridgeport
Mayor Convicted On 16 Charges of Corruption ...
. As noted by the New York Times on
March 19, 2003, “A federal jury today convicted Mayor Joseph P. Ganim of Bridgeport of racketeering, extortion, bribery and
mail fraud, among other felonies, for his role in a six-year scheme to shake
down city contractors for more than $500,000 in cash, meals, clothing, wine and
home renovations”. The article continues
at http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/20/nyregion/bridgeport-mayor-convicted-on-16-charges-of-corruption.html
.
Recently, it was reported that Ganim
may attempt to recapture the Mayor’s seat in Bridgeport.
However, the feedback has not been kind as illustrated at web
link https://www.facebook.com/hartfordcourant/posts/10153042437496602
with such comments as “If the people are stupid enough to re-elect to public
office someone who spent 7 years in prison for bribery while in
office........THEY DESERVE EVERYTHING THEY GET”.
So let’s think about that.
Who is really to blame in the state’s failure to root out corruption,
thereby, necessitating the intervention of the Feds.
Our State legislators who apparently want to protect their own
and therefore refuse to give State investigators the tools they need?
Or do we need to take a closer look at ourselves. Are we to blame? We, the voter, the taxpayer, the parent who
doesn’t know who heads their school board, the property owner who is losing their
home, business or land to a tax lien sale because their property taxes are too
high, but they never bothered to let their public officials know of their
concerns prior to budgets being sealed.
Or registered voters, who didn’t have the time to vote or were
disheartened with the candidates running?
Because apparently in Bridgeport
and in New York
there were too few concerned citizens as many stood by as party affiliates
nominated their candidates to run for public office.
As in August, 2012 the Hartford
Courant reported Back From Prison, Ernie Newton Is Running For His
Former ...Senate Seat. Although voters and taxpayers have
little control over Republican and Democrat
Town Committees who
nominate candidates to run for public office, they do at the polls. And this time, the voters spoke and rejected
the candidate selected by the Democrat
Town Committee of Bridgeport.
Newton
was defeated!
This was not the case in New
York as headlines read Sheldon Silver elected to 11th term as speaker,
despite probe. Silver was elected, but it was
recently reported he is stepping down!
So time will tell if the Bridgeport Democrat
Town Committee will
embrace Ganim should be decide to run, because it
appears since his announcement the public may not be so enamored.
Stay tuned. This could
get interesting as the story of public corruption, as told by the Feds, unfolds in Connecticut!
And don’t give up hope.
The Feds announcement last week that they are in Connecticut to stay – at least for a while -
could serve as the catalyst for our State Legislators to do the right
thing. Clean up Corrupticut
by heeding the words of U.
S. Attorney Daly and implement an effective
grand jury system in our State.
VISIT THE WEBSITE OF THE FBI
And Research Public Corruption
***************
Also Check Out
Recent FOI Convictions
Involving Connecticut