Ruling On Illegal FBI Search To Stand

The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a lower court ruling that the F.B.I. went too far in searching the office of Representative William J. Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat accused of using his position to promote business deals in Africa.

The appeals court did not find that the raid itself was unconstitutional; rather, it found that the F.B.I. violated constitutional separation of powers by allowing agents to look freely through Congressional files for incriminating evidence.

The ruling last August told the bureau to return legislative documents to Mr. Jefferson. It did not, however, affect other items seized from his office, including computer hard drives. Nor did it affect evidence seized in a separate raid on the Congressman’s Washington-area home, including $90,000 found wrapped in aluminum foil in frozen-food containers in his kitchen freezer.

The 18-hour search of Mr. Jefferson’s office on Capitol Hill marked the first time that the F.B.I. had searched a Congressional office, and it touched off a clash between the Bush administration and lawmakers of both parties. Mr. Jefferson has been indicted on charges of bribery, racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering and obstruction of justice. He has pleaded not guilty. The Justice Department said last August that the circuit court ruling would not affect the prosecution of Mr. Jefferson.

Authorities Search For woman In Securities Fraud Case

Federal authorities continue to search Saturday for a woman convicted of securities fraud in a case likened to the Enron and WorldCom scandals who failed to wear an electronic monitoring device ordered by the court.

Rebecca Parrett, a former vice chairwoman of National Century Financial Enterprises in suburban Columbus, was supposed to be confined to her home in Arizona until sentencing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Squires said Friday that Parrett was not wearing the monitoring device. She failed to report to authorities and a warrant was issued for her arrest.

Former Alabama Gov. Appeals Bribery Conviction

Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman is not just getting to go home after spending nine months in federal prison. He's also getting a chance to testify before Congress about possible political influence over his prosecution.

A federal appeals court on Thursday ordered Siegelman released pending the appeal of his corruption case, just hours after the House Judiciary Committee announced that it wants to hear his views when it probes claims of selective prosecution by the Justice Department.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in its ruling Thursday, said the former governor had raised "substantial questions of fact and law" in challenging his conviction.

Salem Man Sentenced In Bribery At Prison

A Salem man convicted of accepting bribes and smuggling drugs into a federal prison will serve two years in prison, officials said.

James Stephen Rolen, 31, a former corrections officer who had worked at Sheridan federal prison since 2003, received the sentence Monday by U.S. District Judge Garr M. King, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Hannah Horsley. Rolen pleaded guilty in November after an indictment on charges related to receiving a bribe to smuggle heroin, marijuana and drug paraphernalia to inmates.

City Employees Admit To Bribery

A former New York City transportation official and an engineer pleaded guilty to bribery charges on Monday, admitting they took part in a scheme to help a company that was seeking millions of dollars in a contract dispute over a bridge renovation.

The pleas were entered in United States District Court in Brooklyn by Balram Chandiramani, 65, who was the director of movable bridges for the city’s transportation agency, and by Uday Shah, 46, an assistant civil engineer on the agency’s staff.

Detroit Mayor and Aide Face Criminal Charges

The civic soap opera engulfing Detroit Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick took a new plot twist Monday when a county prosecutor charged the onetime rising political star with obstruction of justice, perjury and misconduct in office, all related to a romantic relationship with his former chief of staff.

Facing political catastrophe and a long prison term, Kilpatrick defiantly vowed to fight the civil felony charges, which grew out of an $8.4-million settlement of a lawsuit against him by police officials and the leaking of steamy romantic text messages between the mayor and longtime aide Christine Beatty.

Justice Dept. Opens Alcoa Bribery Probe

The Justice Department is opening a criminal inquiry into allegations that Alcoa Inc. was involved in bribery in the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain.

Allegations against Alcoa by the government of Bahrain in a recent civil lawsuit in Pittsburgh are "the subject of an ongoing federal criminal investigation," prosecutors said last night in a filing seeking a temporary hold on the civil case in order to protect their criminal inquiry.

The suit claims that for 15 years Alcoa systematically overcharged Alba for supplies of alumina, a precursor to aluminum used in smelting. Some of the proceeds of the overcharges were used to fund potentially improper payments to a senior Bahrain government official who is already under investigation in that country, according to court papers and interviews.

State Rep. Pleads Guilty To Money Laundering

State Rep. Ron Sailor on Tuesday pleaded guilty to laundering what he believed to be $375,000 in drug money for an undercover officer posing as a drug dealer.

Sailor, 33, a Democrat who represents parts of DeKalb and Rockdale counties, agreed to resign his position in the legislature. Shortly after his arrest three months ago, Sailor admitted his wrongdoing and began providing information for a public corruption investigation.

Sailor was arrested by federal agents at a metro Atlanta hotel on Dec. 19, after taking what he believed to be $300,000 in cash from a drug dealer, who actually was an undercover officer.

Sailor entered his negotiated plea before U.S. District Judge Jack Camp, who will sentence Sailor on May 22. Sailor faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison but is expected to get credit for his cooperation with authorities, his lawyer, Bruce Maloy, said after the plea.

Money laundering involves structuring financial transactions to conceal the source of funds.

Star Witness Testifies At Rezko's Trial

Antoin "Tony" Rezko, 52, a prominent fundraiser for Sen. Barack Obama and Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is Stuart Levine’s alleged partner in what prosecutors describe as a massive fraud scheme in the heart of Illinois government. Neither Obama nor Blagojevich have been accused of wrongdoing.

Rezko sat and watched intently as Stuart Levine took the stand.

Rezko is charged with plotting to split a $1 million bribe with Levine and scheming with him to pressure $7 million in kickbacks out of firms that sought to invest the assets of the $30 billion fund that pays the pensions of downstate and suburban school teachers.

Rezko denies that he took part in any such scheme.

Levine did not come to the stand until late in the afternoon and barely got started talking about Rezko. But he is expected to remain on the stand for at least two weeks at the threeto four-month trial.

As he began to testify, there was none of the frantic stammering and mile-a-minute chatter that jurors have heard on tapes FBI agents made after getting a court order allowing them to wiretap Levine’s home phone.

Levine calmly testified that he took drugs for decades, including LSD, Quaaludes, marijuana, cocaine, crystal meth and kaetamine, and sometimes more than one in a single session. But he said he took them only once or twice a month and quit in 2004.

Rezko’s chief defense counsel, Joseph J. Duffy, a former federal prosecutor, has already claimed that drugs hammered Levine’s brain so hard that his memory is now faulty.

Levine testified he sprinkled bribes across state and city government to land contracts for companies that paid him big money. He said he made payoffs on behalf of companies that sold tires to the City of Chicago and school buses to the Chicago Board of Education.

Levine said he paid bribes on behalf of a health maintenance organization that wanted business from a postal union and a dental insurance plan to get business from the Chicago Board of Education.

He said he funneled payoffs through former Chicago Alderman Edward R. Vrdolyak, who currently is facing charges in connection with a real estate deal that also touches on Rezko and Levine.

Vrdolyak has pleaded not guilty. His attorneys, Michael Monico and Terence Gillespie, were not reached immediately for comment. A message was left on Monico’s voicemail and with Gillespie’s answering service.

Meanwhile, Levine, a Republican, said he hired such big GOP guns as William Cellini and Robert Kjellander to lobby the state government on behalf of the dental plan. He told the jury he was involved in politics much of his life and was a key supporter of former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan, a classmate at Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Cellini, Kjellander and Jim Ryan are accused of no wrongdoing. But the embarrassment of finding their names tied to Levine’s underlines the explosive potential of the biggest political corruption case in Illinois since former Gov. George Ryan went to federal prison. Kjellander is a former treasurer of the Republican National Committee.

Levine estimated he contributed $500,000 to Jim Ryan’s campaign for governor in 2002 in which he was defeated by Blagojevich.

Former House Speaker Lee Daniels and George Ryan were also among the beneficiaries of his political contributions, Levine testified.

Jury To Decide In Wecht Case

The scheming in the Allegheny County morgue had no Snidely Whiplash character, snickering wickedly while plotting the demise of Dudley Do-Right, a federal prosecutor told jurors Monday.

Instead it was Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney James Wilson, who as county coroner schemed and devised a plan to use county employees and resources to benefit his private pathology consulting business. That business, Cyril H. Wecht and Pathology Associates, grossed nearly $800,000 in 2004 while using public workers on public time, Wilson said.

Jurors will begin deliberations in earnest today, after getting the case about 4 p.m. Wecht, 76, of Squirrel Hill faces 41 counts of fraud and theft.

Spanish Police Charged With Bribery & Embezzlement

Four inspectors from an elite unit that combats organised crime in Malaga have been charged with bribery, embezzlement, dereliction of duty, ownership of illegal arms, and revealing confidential information.

Alfredo Marijuán and Carlos Farré have been detained in custody and Isaac Pacheco Suárez and Eusebio Vázquez Fernández were released on bail.

Forty officers have been questioned in connection with the case, which relates to alleged payments received by Inspector Marijuán from Russian nationals for reports on police surveillance operations.

The officer was also alleged to have delivered an envelope containing details about the girlfriend of a Russian who was arrested for cocaine smuggling in the US.

Councilwoman Implicated At Bribery Trial

The Brooklyn lawmaker charged with seeking a new house for $1 from a developer, claimed that a former city councilwoman also got a house for a buck. Prosecutors say Assemblywoman Diane Gordon agreed to steer a valuable parcel of city land to developer Ranjan Batheja in exchange for a home in a gated community.

She was unaware that he was secretly recording their conversation when she implicated retired Councilwoman Priscilla Wooten in a similar scam.

"They gave her [Wooten] the house for one dollar," Gordon said in the Nov. 2, 2004, recording played at her bribery trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court. "You got to give a dollar. That's how you buy, you know, a dollar....And then she paid the taxes. So that's the same thing I'm doing."

Batheja testified Friday that he heard "information floating around in East New York" that Wooten had given a local developer some property and she received a new home in return.

Reached for comment Friday, Wooten forcefully denied the allegation.

Scruggs Plead Guilty In Bribery Case

One of the best-known plaintiffs’ lawyers in the country, Richard Scruggs, unexpectedly agreed to plead guilty on Friday to a criminal charge of conspiracy in the attempted bribery of a judge.

Mr. Scruggs was accused of an effort to obtain a favorable ruling in a lawsuit brought by a rival over legal fees in litigation related to hurricane Katrina. Sidney Backstrom, a lawyer charged along with Mr. Scruggs, also pleaded guilty. Their pleas came in federal court in Jackson, Miss.

The single charge — five others were dismissed under the agreement — carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the agreement.

Mr. Scruggs’s son, Zachary, who was also named in an indictment handed up in November, did not plead and so is expected to go to trial beginning March 31.

Brooklyn Assemblywoman's Bribery Trial Begins

Opening statements began yesterday in a Brooklyn courthouse for the bribery trial of Assemblywoman Diane Gordon. Ms. Gordon, 57, of Brooklyn, is accused of accepting an offer for a $500,000 house in Queens in exchange for supporting a developer's bid for a city-owned piece of property in her East New York district.

She was indicted in 2006 after a yearlong investigation in which she was caught on videotape allegedly accepting the bribe from developer Ranjan Batheja.

Former Graham Aide Faces Fraud Charges

A former aide to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has been indicted on breach of trust and financial fraud charges in connection with money missing from the South Carolina Republican's campaign accounts.

Jennifer Adams of West- minster is accused of taking about $215,000 from the senator's accounts between 2002 and 2007. According to a report in the Independent-Mail of Anderson, she also is charged with using the senator's personal information to obtain a credit card for her own use.

Adams was arrested in December and released on $60,000 bail.

Guilty Plea Filed In Bribe Case

From T-P:

Stacy Simms, a City Hall appointee under two New Orleans mayors and the daughter of former Orleans Parish School Board President Ellenese Brooks-Simms, pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to helping her mother access a series of bribes that totaled $140,000 over several years.

Court documents have identified the source of the bribes as Mose Jefferson, the elder brother and chief political strategist of U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., who is awaiting trial himself in Virginia on 16 unrelated bribery-related counts.

Mose Jefferson was a consultant for the firm JRL Enterprises, which makes a computer-based algebra curriculum called "I CAN Learn." Court documents say Jefferson, who is usually identified as "Mr. A," was paid more than $900,000 for marketing the product to the New Orleans school system. Brooks-Simms urged the board to go along with the sale.

Legislator's Bribery Trial Starts In Brooklyn

Jury selection began Monday in the trial of State Assemblywoman Diane M. Gordon of Brooklyn, who is charged with arranging to receive a bribe from a developer.

Prosecutors say that Ms. Gordon, a Democrat from East New York, offered to help the developer acquire city-owned land in return for a new half-million-dollar home in Queens.

Ms. Gordon, 57, was elected to the Assembly in 2000. Her indictment in July 2006 did not prevent her from winning re-election to a fourth term that year. She would face 5 to 15 years in prison if convicted of the top count, bribe-receiving in the second degree. She has pleaded not guilty. Her trial, before Justice Robert C. McGann in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, is expected to last four to six weeks.

Kodak Kickback Trial To Begin

Barring a last-minute hitch, jury selection is scheduled to begin this morning in a trial alleging the payment of kickbacks to manipulate property assessments in Monroe County, primarily on Eastman Kodak Co. holdings in Greece.

About 120 potential jurors from nine counties are expected to be called to U.S. District Court in Rochester to be screened for the trial of appraiser John E. Nicolo, former Kodak executive David N. Finnman and Nicolo's wife, Constance J. Roeder.

The jury will hear evidence alleging that Nicolo and Finnman conspired with former Greece Assessor Charles A. Schwab and former Kodak executive Mark S. Camarata to manipulate assessments in exchange for kickbacks. Schwab and Camarata have pleaded guilty and could be called as witnesses.

Roeder, along with her husband, is charged with hiding fraudulently obtained funds through dummy corporations and falsified tax returns.

US Oil Exec Jailed For Iraq Bribes

A US oil executive has been jailed for two years for paying bribes worth millions of dollars to the government of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. David Chalmers, the head of Bayoil Inc, paid bribes from 2000 to 2003 to gain access to Iraqi crude oil being sold under the UN oil-for-food programme.

The $60bn (£32bn) UN programme allowed Iraq to sell oil to buy civilian goods to ease the impact of UN sanctions. A number of people have been convicted of abuses linked to the UN initiative.

Last year, Benon Sevan, the former director of the scheme set up because of international sanctions imposed on Iraq after Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, was charged with bribery and conspiracy to commit fraud.

Former Nursing Home Executive Convicted

Following one hour of deliberation, a federal jury in Fort Worth convicted Bedford, Texas, resident, Stephen Michael Ewing, a/k/a “Stephen Michaels,” on various offenses related to his operation of nursing homes in Texas and elsewhere, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. Following this afternoon’s verdict, U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means remanded Ewing to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Specifically, the jury convicted Ewing, 60, on one count of conspiracy, seven counts of tax evasion, five counts of mail fraud, seven counts of making false statements to government agencies and seven counts of making false statements regarding health care.

The maximum statutory sentence applicable to the conspiracy, false statements and tax evasion counts are five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, per count; the maximum statutory penalty applicable to the mail fraud counts is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, per count. Restitution could be ordered. Sentencing has been set for July 21, 2008.

Former Beaumont Officer Sentenced For Mail Fraud

BEAUMONT, Texas — A former police officer accused of pilfering money from the police officers' union was sentenced Thursday to four months in federal prison and four months of home confinement, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Paul Perritt, 54, of Port Neches, also was ordered to make restitution of $142,000. He pleaded guilty in November to mail fraud.

Perritt had been treasurer of the Beaumont Police Officers Association and had the authority to write checks for the union's accounts, which included money from dues.

Prosecutors contend he wrote a $3,300 check from a BPOA account to pay his personal credit card. The check was mailed to the credit card company in June 2003, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Ex-Judge Pleads To Mail Fraud

Former Knox County Judge-Executive Raymond C. Smith pleaded guilty to a federal mail-fraud charge Monday.

Smith admitted that during his term from 2002 to 2006, he had false bids prepared for county projects to cover the fact that companies owned by him or family members did the work. Smith mailed false information to a state auditor, which resulted in the fraud charge, according to a court document.

The maximum prison sentence under the charge is 20 years, but Smith’s sentence probably will be much shorter. The plea deal also calls for him to pay restitution of $110,000 to the county.

Smith’s brother Henry Matt Smith pleaded guilty to aiding the scheme. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years, although it also is likely to be much shorter.

The brothers are to be sentenced in June.

Ex-Chief of Bellevue Hospital Accused Of Bribery

The former executive director of Bellevue Hospital Center, the nation’s oldest public hospital, was charged on Tuesday with taking $27,500 in bribes from a private vendor.

The bribery scheme unfolded, prosecutors said, when the head of a medical transcription service, Professional Transcription Company, met with Mr. Perez in 2000 to promote his company and try to get an exclusive contract with Bellevue.

In that 2000 meeting, Mr. Perez went to dinner at an Upper East Side restaurant with the head of the company, who paid for the meal, prosecutors said. They said the company then hired Mr. Perez’s companion, Regina Morris, who has since become his wife, in what they called essentially a no-show job.

Professional Transcription Company paid Ms. Morris, who has not been charged, $25,000, which prosecutors are now calling a bribe intended for Mr. Perez, for turning in four pages of work: a two-page brochure and a two-page marketing plan.

Mr. Perez then tried to use his influence to help the company win a contract through the hospital’s regular competitive bidding process, prosecutors said, by arranging meetings with company representatives and calling his subordinates on their behalf.

Prosecutor Held For Alleged Bribery

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) placed Urip Tri Gunawan in detention on Monday as part of a bribery investigation targeting the state prosecutor. The graft body also detained Artalita "Astuti" Suryani, the woman that investigators alleged gave Urip US$660,000 in cash.

Both Urip and the woman have been named suspects in the case, the second criminal case to involve a state prosecutor since South Jakarta prosecutors Burdju Roni and Cecep Sunarto were each sentenced to 20 months in jail in February last year for extortion.

The arrest comes as the KPK investigates the alleged misappropriation of Rp 100 billion in Bank Indonesia funds, in a case involving current and former bank officials and House of Representatives members.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi said investigators were seeking possible connections between Astuti and Gadjah Tunggal Group owner Sjamsul Nursalim, whose graft case involving Bank Indonesia liquidity funds was dropped by the Attorney General's Office.

Sociopaths Among Us

After all that Hurricane Katrina victims have gone through, it is just plain awful that now they have to deal with a sociopath and known burglar in their midst. Can you imagine rebuilding your life only to have some heartless sociopath come along to try and take everything you have?

I know we cannot tell convicted felons where to live, but the innocent should be made aware of their presence when there is a strong possibility that they are searching for their next victims.

Japan's Prime Minister Speaks Out

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Sunday rejected calls for his defence chief to resign, saying he was needed to reform the scandal-ridden defence ministry, Kyodo news agency said.

Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba has been harried by accusations of a cover-up over the circumstances behind a collision between a destroyer and a fishing boat earlier this month.

Ishiba has admitted the ministry's handling of the inquiry had flaws, but denied any attempt to hide information and pledged to resign if a cover-up was shown to have taken place.

Marlon Samuels Charged In Scheme

West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels has been charged with misconduct after an internal investigation by the WICB into bribery and match-fixing allegations against him.

The Jamaican batsman was suspected of playing a part in fixing the first One-Day International against India in Nagpur on January 21, 2007. The allegations led to the ICC asking the WICB to conduct an investigation.