Insurance Agent Accused Of Bribery

A Harlingen insurance agent is accused in a federal indictment of providing cash, plane tickets and condo rentals to some Edcouch-Elsa school district officials in exchange for public contracts.

Arnulfo Olivarez was named in a three-count federal indictment returned last month.

The indictment alleges the bribes were made to then-school board president Aaron Luiz Gonzalez and other district officials between 1999 and 2005 in exchange for votes on insurance contracts with the district.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Alcoa Sued for Fraud and Bribery

Alcoa was sued by a metals company controlled by the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain for at least $1 billion on claims of fraud and bribery of officials overseas.

Aluminium Bahrain, or Alba, sued Alcoa in federal court in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, claiming it was overcharged for 15 years for alumina, an ingredient used to make aluminum. Alba, the 10th-largest aluminum producer, claims Alcoa bribed unidentified Bahraini government and company officials to get business. Alcoa is the world's largest producer of alumina and third-largest aluminum producer.

Former Prosecutor Arrested For Bribery

Police have arrested a Delaware County attorney and his private investigator for bribery. The attorney once served as the county prosecutor. Michael Alexander and his investigator Jeff Hinds were escorted out of Alexander's office in handcuffs Wednesday. According to an FBI affidavit, between 2005 and 2007 Alexander and Hinds offered three witnesses thousands in cash to change incriminating statements against a client.

Investigators say the witnesses recorded false statements about the crime in Alexander's office and the suspects coached the witnesses on what to say. According to the affidavit, the bribery worked because the client's charges were reduced. Experts believe this may not be the only bribery incident.

S.C. Johnson Wins Award In Kickback Scheme

A jury awarded consumer products giant S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. $147 million in damages Tuesday to compensate it for losses suffered in a trucking kickback scheme.

The Racine-based maker of products like Ziploc and Glade sued its former transportation director, Milton Morris, and a dozen other people and companies alleging a widespread scheme to bilk it out of millions of dollars. The company had asked for more than $100 million in damages.

The company claimed Morris, trucking company owner Thomas Buske, and others inflated rates and pocketed the excess. They paid each other with trips to places such as Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, rounds of golf and cash transferred through poker games.

Argentine's Former President Charged With Bribery

Former Argentine President Fernando de la Rua was charged with bribery Monday in connection to an alleged scheme to buy support from senators a year before his government collapsed, a court official said.

De la Rua, who governed Argentina from 1999 until December 2001, has repeatedly denied any involvement in an alleged bid by his aides to push labor reforms through Congress by giving senators millions of dollars. The scandal prompted his vice president to abruptly resign.

Temporary Prison Repreive

Vernon Jackson and Brett Pfeffer, key figures in the federal prosecution of Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, were released recently from federal prison -- but it was only temporary. Their release from federal prison facilities in Pennsylvania and West Virginia was ordered so that they could testify at Jefferson's federal corruption trial.

But with the trial, which had been scheduled to begin Monday, postponed while a federal appellate court considers an appeal of a pretrial ruling, from Jefferson's attorneys, it's likely they will be returned to their prison cells shortly. The federal marshals' service had contracted with a local jail near Alexandria, Va., where the Jefferson case is being heard, to house the pair during the trial.

Jackson and Pfeffer pleaded guilty to participating in what the government says was a bribery scheme in which Jefferson was to help Jackson's company, iGate Inc., win telecommunications contracts in western Africa. Jackson was sentenced to seven years, three months in prison, while Pfeffer, a former aide to Jefferson, got an eight-year sentence. The government is expected to ask Judge T.S. Ellis III to reduce the sentences, but only after Pfeffer and Jackson testify and the Jefferson trial is over. Jefferson has pleaded innocent.

Former VW Boss Jailed In Bribery Scandal

A German court sentenced former VW works council head Klaus Volkert to almost three years in prison on Friday, the first person to be given jail time in the bribery and sex trips scandal that rocked Europe's biggest carmaker.

The court found Volkert guilty of inciting and abetting a breach of trust and handed the former labour boss a two year and nine month sentence.