Is political corruption on the rise in this country? Measuring corruption statistically is difficult, if not impossible, due to the illicit nature of the transaction and imprecise definitions of corruption. But it seems as if we hear and read about stories like following in the news virtually everyday.
In Florida, the Miramar City Commissioner is found guilty of two counts each of bribery and extortion in an undercover FBI investigation. In Deerfield Beach, both the city’s mayor and commissioner are arrested on charges of profiting from government business. In Illinois, a City of Chicago zoning investigator goes to jail for accepting a bribe in exchange for providing a favorable zoning inspection report. In Pennsylvania, a member of the Luzerne County Board of Commissioners pleads guilty to accepting a bribe from a developer for voting to accept the developer’s project into a government funded tax incentive program. In New York, four Nassau County public officials are arrested and charged with larceny, conspiracy, fraud and related offenses. A House panel charges a well-known ten-term California law maker with violating ethics rules. And, a high-profile member of the House of Representatives is currently being investigated for a series of allegations of ethics violations and failure to follow tax laws. This inquiry is expected to have serious implications in the upcoming midterm elections.
Fitzroy Salesman (yes, that is his name), the former Miramar City Commissioner, was sentenced to four years and three months in federal prison for taking $3,340 for steering city construction and renovation projects to undercover agents he thought were contractors. “I will never, ever be the same, it doesn’t matter what I do,” said Salesman. “The shame that has been brought on me and my family. If I could give my life to reverse it, I would.”
Mayor of Deerfield Beach Al Capellini has been charged with unlawful compensation, a felony stemming from his involvement in a development deal. He used the power of his political office not only to promote an office building project he’s backing, but to direct city and county officials to make changes that have outraged a neighborhood. The State Attorney’s Office discovered that Capellini had been paid more than $16,000 from the developer to get plat approvals from his own city and the county. The mayor also profited by having a stake in the development itself. Capellini’s arrest comes within a day of the jail booking of his nemesis in Deerfield, Commissioner Steven Gonot, who was charged by prosecutors with grand theft and official misconduct.
Anthony Valentino, a one time City of Chicago zoning investigator, received 31 months in prison for taking $500 to overlook code violations. Valentino, allegedly upset about having to jump through more hoops to get bribes to the right places, was quoted in the charges as saying, “It’s getting more and more difficult I know for everybody to do what they need to do.”
Greg Skrepenak, a former NFL offense lineman who won a seat on Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County Board of Commissioners, was charged with accepting $5,000 in gifts from a developer seeking public financing of a condominium project. Luzerne County is known for its pay –to-play politics, and Skrepenak is just one of 23 officials, including a school superintendent, three county judges, four courthouse officials, and five school board members, who have been charged in a variety of unrelated schemes.
After a three year investigation into a multimillion-dollar redevelopment project in New Cassel, Long Island, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice indicted former county legislators Roger Corbin and Patrick Williams, former Town of North Hempstead Building and Planning Commissioner David Wasserman, and executive director of the Town of North Hempstead Community Development Agency Neville Mullings. The investigation revealed multiple scams, including an extensive bid-rigging and bribery scheme to influence the project to a preferred developer, in addition to the theft of $150,000 of public funds, according to the D.A. “The people of New Cassel envisioned a proud beautiful future for their community,” Rice said. “Instead they got corrupt officials who only envisioned dollar signs.”
Maxine Waters, a California Representative who serves on the House Financial Services Committee, has been under investigation since 2009 for assisting a bank to which she had personal ties in getting federal bailout money. In 2009, she organized a meeting between Treasury officials and executives form OneUnited Bank, where her husband was once a board member and had large investments. The bank received $12 million from the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program.
And, a House ethics committee recently released a report detailing 13 charges against Representative Charles Rangel, including improper use of his office to solicit donations for a City University of New York center to be named in his honor; failure to report rental income from his villa in the Dominican Republic and to pay taxes on it; omission of some $600,000 in assets on his House financial disclosure forms; and acceptance from a Manhattan developer of four rent-stabilized apartments, one of which he used as a campaign office. Ironically, Rangel is the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the chief tax-writing committee of the United States House of Representatives.
Has political corruption always been so pervasive? Has the advent of the 24 hour news cycle skewed our perception by making it appear that the political landscape is deteriorating more rapidly? We are interested in your opinion. Please let us know what you think by answering our poll question.
The immense risks facing government agencies in the current economic and political climates call for uncompromising and assertive actions to prevent and uncover fraudulent activities within departments and in interactions with outside entities such as vendors and taxpayers.
Kessler International has a 22 year history of providing reliable, expeditious and specialized expert services in the areas of forensic accounting, computer forensics and fraud investigations for governmental agencies. Our experienced staff is knowledgeable in the complexities surrounding governmental agencies, and the unique challenges that they face. Our specialists have been called upon to conduct in-depth reviews of governmental departments, internal control reviews, comprehensive construction audits, and computer forensic reviews of government computer systems. Kessler International has been cited as the “Corruption Hunters” in various newspapers around the country.
Recent cases for Kessler International include a forensic audit of the finances of Victorville, CA for the San Bernardino County Grand Jury, a forensic audit of the Office of Housing and Urban Development for Pompano Beach, FL, a forensic audit of the Deerfield Beach, FL Community Development Division, a forensic audit of the Compton Community College of Compton, CA, an Extraordinary Audit of the Los Gatos Union Elementary School District in Los Gatos, CA, a forensic audit relative to the Cape Coral, FL Utility Expansion Project, a forensic audit and construction project review of four different projects for the Fulton County School System in Georgia and a forensic audit of the programs administered by the Fort Pierce, FL Community Services Department.
