Economy Alarm: Dems’ ‘Stimulus’ Could Just Be Easy Money For Mobsters
Dems’ ‘Stimulus’ Could Just Be Easy Money For Mobsters
Law Enforcement Officials Worried About Lack of Controls, Liken Situation to ‘Bank Robber In A Toll Booth’
Obama Asked the American People to Trust Their Government and Promised His Administration Would Provide ‘Unprecedented… Transparency and Accountability’
“We cannot overstate the importance of this effort. We are asking the American people to trust their government with an unprecedented level of funding to address the economic emergency. In return, we must prove to them that their dollars are being invested in initiatives and strategies that make a difference in their communities and across the country.” (Memorandum to Head of Departments and Agencies, www.Recovery.gov, February 9, 2009)
“The president also promised that his administration would provide ‘unprecedented … transparency and accountability.’” (Laura Meckler, “Obama Signs Stimulus Into Law,” 02/18/2009)
Credibility Crash: Despite Democrat Promises of ‘Accountability,’ Failed Stimulus May Simply Lead to Millions of Taxpayer Dollars Ending Up in the Mafia’s Pockets
“Everybody is looking for stimulus money.
From bridge builders to food stamp recipients, from roofers to subway riders, from teachers to housing project residents, people are eager to feel some part of a tidal wave of federal dollars in their lives.
The mob is eager, too.
Federal and state investigators who track organized crime believe that some members have geared up to take advantage of the swift and enormous cash influx — if they have not already — looking, as the old Sicilian expression goes, to wet their beaks.
Nimble, innovative and with a seemingly boundless appetite for the taxpayer’s dollar, the mob’s more sophisticated cadre has plundered municipal, state and federal coffers for generations.
So the F. B. I. office in New York has conducted an extensive analysis of the money flowing into the area to create a blueprint of its vulnerabilities, a process, an official said, that is being continually updated.
Also, some of the 28 inspectors general who have oversight of the federal agencies receiving stimulus money are considering having federal agents sit in on selected screening interviews of contractors to tell them that if they lie to a federal officer, they could be charged with a crime, officials briefed on the matter said.
‘Because there is so much money involved, criminals will look to exploit the system,’ said Guy Petrillo, chief of the criminal division in the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan, referring to the New York area’s five Mafia families.
Because the money is being widely dispersed — flowing to federal agencies, then to states and localities and then to contractors and smaller groups — opportunities for fraud abound at a level rarely seen.
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The distinctiveness of the immediate challenge surrounding the stimulus money is owed in part to the bill’s twin imperatives: Get a lot of money out and get it out as fast as possible. And it is compounded by the fact that law enforcement agencies like the F. B. I. and prosecutors’ offices are hip deep in the competing priorities of counterterrorism and the explosion of corporate and mortgage fraud cases.
Making matters worse, the money is flowing into familiar territory for those with a history of feeding at the public trough. Two of the largest portions of the stimulus pie in the New York City area are going to sectors of the economy — Medicaid and infrastructure projects — where the mob and Eastern European crime groups have flourished for decades, perfecting old schemes and developing new ones.
And it is not just criminals who are causing concern. Several officials noted that in an area where close to two dozen state and city legislators have been indicted in recent years, the flow of stimulus funds through government agencies will provide ample opportunity for corrupt public employees.
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But despite these measures, the speed with which the program has been put in place, along with what many officials have called insufficient oversight, has left some in law enforcement with grave concerns.
‘It’s coming out without the internal controls in place,’ said a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly. ‘It’s like putting a bank robber in a toll booth.’” (“Concern Is High That the Mob May Seek a Cut of the Stimulus Pie,” New York Times, August 31, 2009)
To read the full article, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/nyregion/31mob.html
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