Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com After high-profile corruption cases against Detroit officials, including ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, a joint task force that includes the FBI announced charges Thursday against seven building inspectors accused of accepting bribes for phony inspections, the Detroit News reports. The charges stem from an FBI probe dating as far back as 2007. According to…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI arrested not one – but two – mayors in South Florida on bribery-related charges, the Associated Press reports. On Tuesday, feds took into custody Sweetwater Mayor Manuel “Manny” Marono and Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi. Both are accused of separate kickback and bribery schemes using federal grants. Gov. Rick Scott…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Lawyers for reputed mobster James “Whitey” Bulger continued to make the case that their client wasn’t an FBI informant, the Associated Press reports. Bulger’s attorneys opened their case Tuesday in the murder and racketeering trial of the 83-year-old man accused of participating in 19 murders. The Associated Press reports that Bulger’s…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Thirteen female guards are accused in a federal indictment of working with an inmate gang to smuggle drugs and other banned items into a Baltimore jail, the USA Today reports. Four of those women were impregnated by the leader of the gang, the . Inmates and the guards were charged with racketeering,…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI’s investigation into News Corporation last year included an inquiry into claims that the Wall Street Journal’s China bureau bribed local officials for information, the New York Times reports. It’s unclear what – if anything – the FBI found during the investigation, which originally began over a phone-hacking scandal in 2011. The…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com FBI agents arrested a San Louis Obispo detective on allegations he was involved in a bribery scheme, the Los Angeles Times reports. Cory Pierce, 39, was charged in federal court with one count of bribery, the LA Times wrote. He’s accused of taking cash and narcotics from two people whom he calls…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI is investigating whether Buffalo police accepted bribes and dished out work to select tow truck operators, the Buffalo News reports. FBI agents searched Jim Mazz Auto Inc. in connection with an city-initiated probe into towing truck contracts. The Buffalo News wrote that other operators are under investigation. Competition between operators…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A member of the Indianapolis City Council and former police officer cannot argue he was entrapped by the FBI for accepting bribes from an undercover agent, the 7th Circuit has ruled, Courthouse News Service reports. Lincoln Plowman came under scrutiny after developing a reputation for “questionable use of the power and influence…
