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Corruption in the United States
• Introduction• Federal Bureau of
Investigation• Public Integrity
Section of Dept. of Justice
• Overview– Jack Abramoff – U.S. Congressman
Bob Ney
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Start of Investigation
• February 2004 – Washington Post Article– Abramoff & Scanlon defrauded Native
American Indian Tribal Clients
• Common ways FBI initiates investigations– Public Source Documents– Confidential Human Sources
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Start of Investigation – Jack Abramoff
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Start of Investigation - Lobbying
• A Lobbyist = hired to influence legislators on behalf of a particular industry, group, or individual
• Lobbying Disclosure Act = lobbyists must register with Congress
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Start of Investigation - Lobbying
• Native American Tribal Clients
• Law allows Native American Tribes to operate casinos
• Clients wanted to open their own casinos or prevent competitor casinos from opening
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Start of Investigation - Allegations• Abramoff committed fraud on his clients• Abramoff corrupted public officials by giving things of value (trips,
tickets, meals, and drinks) in return for official action
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Start of Investigation – Public Officials
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Investigative Team
• Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Plenary Jurisdiction• Lead Agency
• Department of Interior Inspector General
• Jurisdiction over corruption of Interior Department Officials
• Access to witnesses on Native American Indian Reservations
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Investigative Team(continued)
• IRS Criminal Investigation
• Jurisdiction over Tax Crimes
• IRS agents follow the money
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Building the Case
• Public Source Documents
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Building the Case
• Public Source Documents
• Non-public source documents– Emails
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Building the Case
• Public Source Documents
• Non-public source documents– Emails– Financial records maintained by business
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Building the Case
• Public Source Documents
• Non-public source documents– Emails– Financial records maintained by business– Restaurant Point of Sale System– Airline and Frequent Flyer Records
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Building the Case(continued)
• Witness Interviews
• Other techniques: wiretaps and search warrants
• Cooperating Witnesses and consensual recordings– Staffer– Prosecutorial discretion
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Building the Case(continued – recordings)
• Building trust with cooperating witness
• Convincing cooperating witness to make recordings
• Getting cooperating witness invested in success of recordings
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Building the Case(continued – recordings)
• Script or no script.
• Decision Trees.
• Don’t trust the equipment – redundancy, “belt and suspenders.”
• Square Peg vs Round Hole test.
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Building the Case(continued – recordings)
• Results
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Building the Case(witness interviews – plea agreements)
• Plea Agreements - Will Heaton• Pros for the Government:
– quick resolution without a trial; – Heaton must cooperate
• Pros for Heaton:– avoid costly defense; – lower jail sentence through cooperation
• Coordination required– Attorneys evaluate whether the government has enough
evidence to pursue plea agreement– Agents work to firm up weak areas of proof to ensure that
government can pursue plea agreement– Attorneys negotiate agreement and Agents debrief Heaton
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Building the Case(witness interviews - plea agreements)
• Corruption Charges: Bribery (15 years) or Honest Services Fraud (20 years)
• False Statements (5 years)– False Financial Disclosure Forms
• Conspiracy (5 years)
• Conflict of Interest Charges– Aiding and abetting one-year ban violations (5
years)
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Building the Case(witness interviews - continued)
• Actual Charges
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Building the Case(plea agreements - benefits)
• Made a consensual recording of Ney
• Provided information known only to Heaton and Ney
• Broke Ney’s will to fight charges
• Other targets have pled guilty and are cooperating
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Building the Case(plea agreements - benefits)
• Other witnesses more likely to tell the truth
• Public has confidence that investigation is being handled appropriately
• Behavior of others changes– Trips– Ethics Rules
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