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…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson’s newest appointee has a checkered past, the Washington Times reports. According to court records, Johnson’s chief of staff, Christian Marrone, oversaw the private renovations of a mansion owned by state Sen. Vince Fumo. At the time, Marrone was one of Fumo’s legislative aides. According to the report…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Patricia M. Ferrick, the new head of the FBI in Connecticut, said Wednesday that a top priority is cracking down on public corruption, the Associated Press reports. “You have to look for corruption to find it,” Ferrick said Wednesday during an interview in her office with The Associated Press. “It doesn’t walk…
