Tag: bribery

The Story: The impeachment of a US President was once a very rare event. A child born in 1870 might have lived to be a...

By A federal grand jury has indicted North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Robin Hayes and a major GOP campaign donor on conspiracy and bribery charges for their attempts to influence N.C. Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey. That was in 2017, according to the indictment. In August 2017, the indictment says Hayes texted Causey and suggested “I think u should consider a face to face (with Lindberg).” In November 2017, Gray told Causey that Lindberg had contributed $500,000 to the NC GOP and earmarked $110,000 for Causey’s campaign, according to the indictment. Lindberg and Gray suggested that Causey hire Palermo to replace or supervise the senior deputy commissioner, the indictment says In a March 5 meeting in Statesville, Causey confirmed his ability to hire Palermo. During that meeting, Lindberg told Causey that he’d support him with up to $2 million in campaign contributions, according to the indictment. Palermo then quoted “Public Official A,” saying that Causey “needs to man-up and do what he agreed to.” The indictment says the public official then contacted Causey and said Lindberg, Gray and Palermo “seemed anxious to find out” if Causey had made staffing changes. The indictment says FBI agents interviewed Hayes in August 2018 and specifically asked whether Hayes was aware of “expectations” Lindberg might have had for a $500,000 donation he made to the party. “Thanks to the voluntary reporting of the North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance, we have uncovered an alleged scheme to violate our federal public corruption laws,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray said in a news release Tuesday. We will work with our law enforcement partners to investigate allegations of public corruption, safeguard the integrity of the democratic process, and prosecute those who compromise it.” Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski referred to the group’s alleged actions as “a brazen bribery scheme in which Greg Lindberg and his coconspirators allegedly offered hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions in exchange for official action that would benefit Lindberg’s business interests.” Lindberg donations Lindberg was the biggest political donor in North Carolina over the last few years, the News & Observer has previously reported. Bob Hall, the former head of government watchdog group Democracy NC, told the News & Observer he has identified roughly $5.5 million in political contributions from Lindberg to North Carolina politicians, political parties and Super PACs since 2016, and another $500,000 from Lindberg’s businesses and employees.

Aiming to crack down on money laundering and bribes to overseas governments, the FBI is stepping up its efforts to root out foreign corruption with a new squad of agents based in Miami. The squad will focus its efforts not only on Miami but also in South America, a continent that has been home to some of the Justice Department's most significant international corruption prosecutions of the last several years. "We're protecting the rule of law," Leslie Backschies, the chief of the FBI's international corruption unit, said in an interview Monday. "One thing when I talk to companies, I'm like, 'When you pay a bribe, do you know where your bribe goes? We've had a lot of work there," Backshies said. "When you're looking at foreign officials in other governments — I mean, look, in Malaysia, the president wasn't re-elected. The agents are working to ensure there's "a place where business can compete fairly," and in most cases other governments are glad to accept the FBI's help in rooting out corruption, Backschies said. "You can't just have one agent or two agents in a field office addressing it. The unit had been splitting cases involving South American countries between the three other offices before Backschies decided they should refocus their resources and add agents in Miami. "Beverly Hills, New York, Miami — these are cities where we find people hiding their money" in real estate and boating, Backshies said.

This time, a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has been lodged over his post as Umno president. The report alleged that the former deputy prime minister bribed Umno members into voting him in as president during the party election in June. MACC deputy chief commissioner (operation) Datuk Seri Azam Bak confirmed that the report was lodged on Friday. “We will investigate and if necessary, call him (Ahmad Zahid) in for questioning if there are elements of corruption.” It is still unclear how much money was involved and how many Umno members allegedly received bribes. Ahmad Zahid took on the presidency after he won 99 divisions and 39,197 popular votes, while Khairy Jamaluddin won 61 divisions and 32,592 votes. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who also vied for the post, won only 30 divisions and 20,462 votes. On June 30, Khairy tweeted that the voting system favoured the “warlords” who had a strong hold on their divisions and that many were instructed, threatened and forced to follow their choice. In an interview prior to the Umno presidential polls, Ahmad Zahid said the party had to eradicate the culture of warlords and money politics and that the latter was a problem that had been brought up for many years, even leading to Umno splitting into two in 1987. He added that despite efforts to eradicate money politics, it “may still exist”. He is currently facing 46 charges of CBT, graft and money laundering – 11 counts of CBT involving RM20,833,733.69, eight graft charges amounting to RM21,250,000 and 27 money-laundering charges totalling RM72,063,618.15.

What started as a quiet race for the Republican nominee for Dallas County commissioner has turned into a pitched battle over criminal allegations and illegal immigration. In a recent email to supporters, Koch blamed Dallas County's shrinking middle class on "illegal immigrants." "We have to speak truthfully about the problems we face," Koch said this week. The attorney general's office declined to comment. Koch said the real criminal violations in the race were committed by Cunningham. He pointed to a Texas Ethics Commission complaint over Cunningham's campaign signs calling Cunningham a "Judge" without clearly stating that he's now retired. In the selfie-style video, Koch shows one of the signs without the "(Ret.)" Cunningham dismissed the sign flap as insignificant, saying he is considered a senior district judge by the state for life. Having entered the race more than a year earlier than Cunningham, Koch's campaign has raised and spent far more. Meanwhile, Cunningham took in $52,100 and spent $64,000.

Newsrooms ordered up stories on the frenzy: "Charlottewants to be home to Amazon's $5 billion second headquarters." "If Amazon wants an East Coast headquarters, I don't see any city better in America than Boston, Massachusetts," proclaimed Mayor Marty Walsh. His administration, he said, would be "laser-focused" on landing the project. If cities and states are determined to compete for Amazon's new campus by showering it with fistfuls of taxpayer dollars, the company can't be blamed for pocketing the largesse. But what excuse do mayors and governors have? Again and again they spend taxpayers' funds to woo companies in this way. Massachusetts officials have repeatedly gambled with public dollars to entice companies to move to the state (or to keep local firms from leaving). "Over the past 16 years, Massachusetts has given away hundreds of millions of dollars in state and local tax breaks for more than 1,300 development projects," reported the Boston Globe in 2010, and "far too often taxpayers have not come close to getting their money's worth." Biotech, despite being nurtured with more than $650 million in government subsidies, accounted for just one-tenth of 1 percent of that growth. This may be a "sweet land of subsidy" for crony capitalists.

Newsrooms ordered up stories on the frenzy: "Charlottewants to be home to Amazon's $5 billion second headquarters." "If Amazon wants an East Coast headquarters, I don't see any city better in America than Boston, Massachusetts," proclaimed Mayor Marty Walsh. His administration, he said, would be "laser-focused" on landing the project. If cities and states are determined to compete for Amazon's new campus by showering it with fistfuls of taxpayer dollars, the company can't be blamed for pocketing the largesse. But what excuse do mayors and governors have? Again and again they spend taxpayers' funds to woo companies in this way. Massachusetts officials have repeatedly gambled with public dollars to entice companies to move to the state (or to keep local firms from leaving). "Over the past 16 years, Massachusetts has given away hundreds of millions of dollars in state and local tax breaks for more than 1,300 development projects," reported the Boston Globe in 2010, and "far too often taxpayers have not come close to getting their money's worth." Biotech, despite being nurtured with more than $650 million in government subsidies, accounted for just one-tenth of 1 percent of that growth. This may be a "sweet land of subsidy" for crony capitalists.