Posts with the tag 'Corruption'
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer will be giving a statement at 11:30 a.m. ET. I’m hearing that the resignation will take effect on Monday. There is a lot of speculation about a possible deal with prosecutors in return for his resignation…
The hypocrisy of this whole situation is astounding. The sex aspect is nothing in the big picture:
As attorney general, he once broke up a call-girl ring and locked up 18 people on corruption, money-laundering and prostitution charges. He ruthlessly investigated the pay packages of Wall Street executives and was so familiar with shady financial maneuvers that he rose to become the top racketeering prosecutor in Manhattan.
But in the end, it appears that Spitzer may have been done in by the same behavior he built a career out of prosecuting.
In fact, it seems he was tripped up by some of the very financial accounting methods he used so successfully against multibillion-dollar Wall Street firms.
For one thing, the governor initially drew the attention of federal investigators because of cash payments to an account operated by a call-girl ring, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of because of the sensitivity of the case.
Banks are required to file Suspicious Activity Reports to the government whenever they observe something they fear may be a crime.
In court papers, Client 9—identified by another law enforcement official as Spitzer—hurried to get more than $4,000 in cash to pay a call girl at a Washington hotel.
That kind of activity, repeated over time, is just the kind of thing that would set off alarm bells with a bank’s compliance officer, who is trained to be on the lookout for what is called structuring or “smurfing”—a pattern of transactions aimed at hiding the nature or purpose of certain money.
There is a lot more to this story, particularly since, as Rep. Peter King has noted, the link between prostitution rings and organized crime:
At least a dozen New York members either didn’t return calls or gave variations on “no comment” or “we’re monitoring the situation” when Capitol Briefing asked for a reaction. One of the few exceptions so far was the always media-friendly Rep. Peter King (R), who passed along his thoughts right before sitting down for a CNBC interview on the subject.
“I was absolutely shellshocked,” King said of the Spitzer news. “I’ve never heard any rumors, any whispers, anything at all.”
King added that he believed Spitzer should resign, since “prostitution rings are invariably linked to organized crime” and the governor’s behavior “leaves himself and the state susceptible to blackmail.”
The question remains what is the ultimate fate of Spitzer? Will he avoid prosecution and jail time?
UPDATE 11:45 am.: Spitzer resigns with his wife at his side.
UPDATE: Robert Stacy McCain hits the nail on the head:
In many ways, Spitzer’s resignation statement was classy, and notably lacked the kind of “accuse the accusers” tactic that Bill Clinton taught us to expect from Democrats caught red-handed.
However, Spitzer’s repeated use of the phrase “my private failings” was a dishonest evasion. What would Spitzer, as a former prosecutor, say about an accused dope dealer who spoke of his crime as a “private failing”?
In patronizing prostitutes, Spitzer was engaged in a criminal act. Crime is an offense against the citizenry, which is why the prosecution of Spitzer for federal money laundering charges — if such a prosecution is indeed pursued — will be called “United States vs. Spitzer.” And no crime can be more public than a crime committed by a powerful public official, such as the governor of New York.
Tags: Corruption, Eliot Spitzer, Rep. Peter King, scandal
March 12th, 2008
As Congressman Eric Cantor reports, the U.S. House today bypassed its own rules in passing a nefarious sham of a bill cloaked under the guise of “ethics reform:”
House Democrats had crafted legislation, an ethics bill in name only, that will do nothing to clean-up Washington. In fact, many non-partisan experts believe that it will only further empower the special interests.
Tonight, on the House floor, House Democrats were headed towards defeat. They were opposed by a bipartisan coalition of Members, who wanted to work towards meaningful ethics reform, rather than accept the empty rhetoric offered by the House Democrat Leadership. At the end of the vote, the bipartisan coalition had prevailed; yet, Speaker Pelosi held the vote open and strong-armed less senior Representatives into voting her way. This action violated House rules that were enacted in January of last year.
This “ethics reform” bill will create an unaccountable, supposedly “independent” commission comprised of six people that will serve as personal pit bulls that can bring forth charges against congressmen anonymously without probable cause, with no chance for the accused congressman to face their accusers!
In an interview with Laura Ingraham today, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (MN-6th CD) tells of the “kangaroo court” that this bill will create in the House of Representatives:
boomp3.com
(click to listen)
Now I’m for getting rid of unethical congresscritters just as much as the next guy. But what Pelosi’s plan amounts to is an unaccountable, un-elected “commission” who in effect will have the power to do the bidding of special interests by putting forth trumped-up charges with no probable cause; with no mechanism for due process for the accused, nor any way for the congressperson to even know by whom he or she is charged, much less face their accusers. In other words, as Ingraham stated, Pelosi and Co. are willing to extend more rights to terrorists in Gitmo than their political enemies in the Halls of Congress.
Leave it to the perpetually ethically-challenged Nancy Pelosi to turn an “ethics bill” into an unethical travesty of justice.
Tags: Corruption, Michele Bachmann, Nancy Pelosi
March 11th, 2008
And this guys platform was all about routing out corruption..
Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation.
An affidavit in the federal investigation into a prostitution ring said that a wiretap recording captured a man identified as Client 9 on a telephone call confirming plans to have a woman travel from New York to Washington, where he had reserved a hotel room. The person briefed on the case identified Mr. Spitzer as Client 9.
He may resign this evening.
UPDATE: While I am commuting back home on the train I would like to add that considering the dark ethical cloud hanging over Spitzer’s office since he became governor — his office was the subject of multiple investigations — it is somewhat unfortunate that this alone is what people will remember about his downfall.
UPDATE: Video of Spitzer apologizing…
UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Spitzer’s prospective replacement - Lt. Governor David Patterson, formerly NY Senate Minority Leader - also has an issue to deal with:
A US District Court judge has rejected the Senate Democrats’ effort to block a discrimination lawsuit filed by a white photographer who claims he was fired by former Minority Leader David Paterson only because he wasn’t black.
The ruling, first reported by the New York Law Journal (subscription only), makes for some interesting reading.
Paterson, now the lieutenant governor, asserted he axed the photographer, Joseph Maioriello, because he was a holdover from former Minortiy Leader Marty Connor’s regime. Paterson said he was unsure where Maioriello’s loyalties lay and was worried that Connor, whom he ousted in 2002, and others were “plotting” to re-gain control of the Democratic caucus.
Maioriello was replaced by an African-American photographer, El-Wise Noisette, who last worked for former state Comptroller H. Carl McCall (the first black gubernatorial candidate who lost his challenge to Republican Gov. George Pataki in 2002).
But Paterson insisted he had no idea about the race of either man due to the fact that he is legally blind.
“Given my visual impairment, I did not know for certain the race of either the plaintiff or Noisette,” Paterson stated in his deposition.
There’s just too many jokes to say about this…I’ll hold fire.
UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Kossacks, naturally, blame President Bush:
If Spitzer has a taste for call girls, I won’t defend that… Neither am I prone to jump on it and go to town. I’m strictly of the Larry Flynt camp…Let it all out, and let the hypocrites wither in the light of day.
But I have a very discerning internal alarm. and that alarm tells me that this story only hit the news because the NSA, or the FBI…was snooping on this guy because he is so on the record as a trust buster and corporate cop.
Mark my words…this has the Bush Administration’s fingerprints all over it…and if the MSM digs a little deeper, they will find what Congress is afraid to look for…evidence that Bush’s wiretap program has less to do with terrorists than it has to do with political foes.
UPDATE: As the New York Times notes, this is a federal crime…
Federal prosecutors rarely charge clients in prostitution cases, which are generally seen as state crimes. But the Mann Act, passed by Congress in 1910 to address prostitution, human trafficking and what was viewed at the time as immorality in general, makes it a crime to transport someone between states for the purpose of prostitution. The four defendants charged in the case unsealed last week were all charged with that crime, along with several others.
UPDATE: Impeachment threat if he doesn’t resign…
Tags: Corruption, Eliot Spitzer, Extremism
March 11th, 2008
The Times Online (UK) reports on a very shady deal involving Barack Obama and a British-Iraqi billionaire, that also involves Tony Rezko and the already shady land deal they had.
A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama’s fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses.
The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, helped Mr Obama buy his mock Georgian mansion in Chicago.
A company related to Mr Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered the loan to Mr Obama’s bagman Antoin “Tony” Rezko on May 23 2005. Mr Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million. Three weeks later, Mr Obama bought a house on the city’s South Side while Mr Rezko’s wife bought the garden plot next door from the same seller on the same day, June 15.
Mr Obama says he never used Mrs Rezko’s still-empty lot, which could only be accessed through his property. But he admits he paid his gardener to mow the lawn. Mrs Rezko, whose husband was widely known to be under investigation at the time, went on to sell a 10-foot strip of her property to Mr Obama seven months later so he could enjoy a bigger garden.
Mr Obama now admits his involvement in this land deal was a “boneheaded mistake”.
Mrs Rezko’s purchase and sale of the land to Mr Obama raises many unanswered questions. It is unclear how Mrs Rezko could have afforded the downpayment of $125,000 and a $500,000 mortgage for the original $625,000 purchase of the garden plot at 5050 South Greenwood Ave….
MORE: Our Obama file…
Tags: Corruption, shady deals, Tony Rezko
February 26th, 2008
“Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it”
-William Pitt the Younger, The Earl of Chatham and British Prime Minister from 1766 to 1778
Nowhere does this phrase ring with more clarity and truth than in PA-12, and in no heart more so than the soul-less Jack P. Murtha. After making this post, I took the liberty to telephone Lt. Col. (ret) William T. Russell and get his take on the slimy she-nanigans afoot to remove him from the ballot to challenge the perennial political boss of PA-12. What I found was nothing less than nauseating.
As the Johnstown Democrat stated,
The challenge was filed by two local Republicans: Former Johnstown Mayor Don Zucco and attorney Jeanne McKelvey.
In what was an ominous statement that could have otherwise been uttered by a Stepford wife,
Zucco said only, “There are lots of ways to support the congressman.”
Aside from being totally non-sensical, what could drive a former Republican mayor, one who actually signed the petition to put Russell on the ballot, to initiate a petition to recall the ballot? Zucco reportedly lives across the street from Murtha. What kind of quid pro quo would make Zucco turn tail and not only run away from Russell, but attempt to derail the nomination of a viable candidate from his own party?
The answer, my dear readers, is found in the climate of fear created over three decades of immoral, corrupt, political powerbroking in PA-12 that would make the likes of Don Vito Corleone seem like Albert Schweitzer in comparison.
The history of corruption that has been Murtha’s decades-long tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives, time and time-again chronicled on this blog, has resulted not in a constituency representative of a free people, but rather a fiefdom of serfs afraid that any action against their liege would turn into certain repercussions by a nefarious network that could easily be labeled the Murtha Crime Syndicate.
Rather than utilizing his office in a manner befitting a public servant, Jack Murtha has displayed a clear pattern of abuses that has allowed him to cleave onto power just as surely as the legendary hydra clung onto a sinking ship as its hapless captives drowned.
It just so happens that Murtha’s corruption has bought the allegiance of nearly half of the Republican party structure in PA-12, not to mention countless professionals who are afraid to sign a public petition, or be on a list of contributors to a contender, lest they face retribution at a workplace in which Murtha’s largesse has been a benefactor. William Russell recounted a number of occasions of talking to professionals who would like nothing more than to see Murtha go, but at the same time are afraid to be publicly seen supporting an opponent.
PA-12’s allegiance to Jack Murtha, while certainly bringing about a booty of baubles and beads, has at the same time left them captive to the whims and fancies of a bald-faced, ruthless tyrant.
The venerable Thomas Jefferson once acutely observed, “A government afraid of it’s citizens is a Democracy. Citizens afraid of government is tyranny!”
It is time that the citizens of PA-12 renounce this travesty of government that has been the Murtha tenure in the U.S. Congress. It is time for men of character to stand up once and for all and declare that the emperor has no clothes, and once and for all break free of the fiefdom resultant of decades of greed and corruption.
Good citizens of PA-12. It is time to cast off the golden-fleeced shackles of servitude and to once again restore honor to your seat in the House of Representatives.
Good citizens of PA-12, Murtha Must Go!!
Tags: Corruption, Jack Murtha
February 22nd, 2008
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