Corruption in the local government

Three separate federal probes in Broward County involving alleged payoffs of more than $40,000 have led to the arrests Wednesday of two leading political figures and a former Miramar city official.

Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion Jr., School Board member Beverly Gallagher and former Miramar Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman were arrested Wednesday on a variety of charges including bribery, fraud and money laundering. FBI agents are interviewing other witnesses and could bring additional charges against other people.

Officials would not say how the investigations started, but it is apparent from the criminal complaints that Salesman, while under investigation, led undercover agents to Eggelletion. All three appeared during an afternoon hearing before federal Magistrate Judge Lurana Snow and were granted personal surety bonds. They were in the process of being released. Gov. Charlie Crist issued an executive order Wednesday afternoon suspending Eggelletion and Gallagher.

So far, no resignation letter from either official had been received by Crist. Crist will solicit applications and interview candidates and make interim appointments sometime in the next several weeks.

Criminal complaints outlined the probe of each public official as follows:

*Gallagher accepted $12,500 from FBI agents posing as builders who were trying to land a contract with the Broward County School Board. The money allegedly paid to Gallagher was in exchange for her vote in support of a school construction project. Gallagher took some money to set up a meeting with Michael Garretson, the Broward school district's deputy superintendent for construction and facilities management, so the fake builders could prequalify for district construction contracts. Garretson is not named in the complaint.

According to the complaint, Gallagher influenced a district committee to recommend a large construction company for an approximately $71 million renovation project at Hollywood Hills High School. The company would then agree to hire the federal agents for subcontract work. The company is not mentioned by name in the complaint, but the School Board eventually awarded the contract to James B. Pirtle Construction. Between Jan. 1, 2002 and August 11, 2009, the school district's facilities department had issued 27 contracts to Pirtle, public records show. The Hollywood Hills renovations have since been scrapped, part of dozens of school construction projects the district eliminated due to budget constraints.

*Salesman, while serving as Miramar commissioner, accepted $5,840 from FBI agents posing as contractors attempting to land business with the city of Miramar. He then agreed to cooperate with the FBI in their separate investigation of Eggelletion. According to a criminal complaint, an FBI undercover agent and a cooperating witness met with Salesman in April 2006 to get construction work. At the recorded meeting, Salesman accepted an envelope containing $1,000 from the undercover agent and then made a phone call to an individual identified by Salesman as a high ranking Miramar city official.

The complaint said Salesman asked the city official if he had any no-bid $50,000 jobs available and made an appointment with the official for that month, adding he would bring the person he thought was a contractor.  Salesman told the contractor that the city official ``owes me'' because he had gotten him his job and raises in the past, the complaint said. That city official arranged for the contractor to meet another official regarding the design and construction of a gazebo project that had been destroyed by Hurricane Wilma.

After further negotiations, Miramar wrote a check one year later for $34,366 as payment for the construction of the gazebo.  During that time, Salesman was suspended after a 2005 DUI arrest. He was reinstated in April 2007. In a separate deal orchestrated by Salesman, Miramar issued another check for renovating a gym floor for $28,475 in October 2007. For that deal, Salesman got $3,000, the complaint said.

*Eggelletion was involved with two South Florida businessmen and an attorney in the Bahamas to launder $23,000 collected as part of a Ponzi scheme. The others arrested were Ron Owens and Joel Williams, both businessmen. The third defendant is Bahamian attorney Sidney Cambridge. To establish their relationship with Eggelletion, FBI agents donated $5,000 to the commissioner's private golf foundation. The allegations against Eggelletion are not related to his public office.

This is how the money laundering scheme unfolded, according to the criminal complaint:

In July 2006, the undercover agents told Eggelletion they were interested in opening an offshore bank account on behalf of a client. Eggelletion said he had contacts with bankers in the Bahamas. Late that year, an undercover agent and cooperating witness told Eggelletion they wanted to hide their client's proceeds from a ``nonexistent European, high-yield investment fraud scheme that was sending out `made up' statements to clients.''

Federal authorities say Eggelletion got $23,000 in kickbacks in a money laundering operation, where he helped set up a bank account in the Bahamas to wire $900,000 derived from a purported Ponzi scheme.
Eggelletion introduced the agents to Williams and Owens to assist with opening a bank account in the Bahamas.

PHI 2604 Chapter 3 Homework

Homework

1. Define:
a) Freedom
b) Equality
c) Rights
2. “Justice” is usually defined as fairness. Is there a more detailed explanation based on today’s affairs?
3. What is the best way to cut the fiscal pie? Explain.
4. How would utilitarians do it? Cite Mill’s example of “talented workers.”
5. What would “worker participation” and “greater equality of income” mean for Mill?
6. What is the libertarian approach to justice? Define Nozick’s “entitlement theory.”
7. Explain Nozick’s other two principles.
8. Clarify Rawls’ idea of justice. Cite his two main principles.
9. Within Rawl’s theory, define:
a) Nature of choice
b) Veil of Ignorance
c) Choosing principles

Elected Officials Reward Their Campaign Contributors

Taken from The Miami New Times.

Oil brokers sex scandal may affect drilling debate

"On the eve of Congress starting this big debate you've got a horror story of mismanagement and misconduct in programs that are going to be a key part of the discussion," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in an interview, adding that it can't help but influence the debate. The two-year, $5.3 million investigation by Interior's inspector general found workers at the Minerals Management Service's Royalty Collection Office in Denver partying, having sex, using drugs and accepting gifts and ski trips and golf outings from energy company representatives with whom they did government business.

The investigations exposed "a culture of ethical failure" and an agency rife with conflicts of interest, Inspector General Earl E. Devaney said.

Between 2002 and 2006, 19 oil marketers — nearly a third of the Denver office staff — received gifts and gratuities from oil and gas companies, including Chevron Corp., Shell, Hess Corp. and Denver-based Gary-Williams Energy Corp., the investigators found.
"Employees frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and natural gas company representatives" who referred to some of the government workers as the "MMS Chicks."

The director of the royalty program had a consulting job on the side for a company that paid him $30,000 for marketing its services to various oil and gas companies, the report said.
MMS Director Randall Luthi said in an interview the agency was taking the report "extremely seriously" and would weigh taking appropriate action in coming months.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in a statement released Thursday vowed to take swift action, saying that he was "outraged by the immoral behavior, illegal activities and appalling misconduct of several former and long-serving career employees." Taken from here.

PHI 2604 Homework: Chapter 1

Sorry about how late I've posted this. For some reason I forgot my password and only got it yesterday.

PHI 2604 Homework: Chapter 1

Have the answers to these questions ready for our next meeting on Wednesday.

1- Discuss the different meanings of “Ethics”?
2- Establish the distinction between “moral” and “non-moral” standards.
3- What’s the difference between morality and etiquette. Think of one example.
4- Point to the differences between “morality” and “law.” Think of one example.
5- Where do moral standards come from?
6- Is religion necessary for morality? Explain why or why not.
7- Define “ethical relativism.” Go over some of the counterarguments explore in the text. Do you have any other possible objections to this position?
8- (On page 13) Is it true that “business” has its own kind of ethics as Albert Carr argues for?
9- How reliable is our conscience when it comes to acting morally? Comment on Huck example (page 15).
10- Regarding individual responsibility within a corporation, what was David Frew’s discovery? (page 18)
11- What is a defensible moral judgment?
12- Discuss the requirements for moral judgments?