By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section has overcome some embarrassing blunders, from caving in to politicians to failing to convict former Sen. Ted Stevens and Sen. John Edwards. In 2010, Jack Smith became the head of the beleaguered section, shouldered with the daunting responsibility of improving the prosecutors’ images as…
By Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The FBI is increasing its arsenal against international corruption by creating three squads tasked with rooting out bribery cases that happen overseas but have repercussions for the U.S., the Associated Press report. Corruption in foreign countries is becoming a bigger focus of the FBI’s because of the expansion of the global…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Ex-Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Richmond to two years in prison for soliciting and obtaining payments, loans, gifts and other items from Star Scientific, a Virginia-based corporation, and Jonnie R. Williams Sr., Star Scientific’s then chief executive officer. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen McDonnell,…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com DETROIT — Paul M. Abbate arrived in Detroit last fall to take over the local FBI office, days after Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick got a hefty 28-year prison sentence. Kilpatrick was whisked away in handcuffs. But the scent of corruption lingered, and Abbate suddenly found himself heading up an FBI office, where public corruption investigations continue to…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Former Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, who had been mentioned as a vice presidential candidate at one time, was convicted Thursday in U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va., along with his wife Maureen, of public corruption and selling the office to a free spending Richmond businessman for golf outings, lavish vacations…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com The head of internal affairs at Customs and Border Protection was removed from his position Monday following criticism that he wasn’t aggressive enough with agents accused of using inappropriate force, the Los Angeles Times reports. James F. Tomsheck, whose job is to root out corruption among the federal government’s largest law enforcement…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Separate corruption investigations led to the arrests of two public officials in North Carolina and California and to the raid of the office of a New York state senator, the Washington Post reports. Hundreds of federal agents descended on offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, arresting several people including state Democratic…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com FBI Special Agent Leon Martinez, who investigated 9/11 terrorists, government corruption and drug cartels in Florida, is headed to the private sector after 25 years with the bureau, the Herald-Tribune reports. Martinez is opening a private investigative firm in Sarasota called the Executive Assessment Group, which will conduct background investigations and surveillance…
