Corruption in the United States

1. 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

2. 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

3. Start of Investigation – Jack Abramoff

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. Start of Investigation – Public Officials

8. 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

9. Investigative Team(continued) • IRS Criminal Investigation • Jurisdiction over Tax Crimes • IRS agents follow the money

11. Building the Case • Public Source Documents

13. Building the Case • Public Source Documents • Non-public source documents • Emails

15. Building the Case • Public Source Documents • Non-public source documents • Emails • Financial records maintained by business

17. 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

18. Building the Case(continued) • Witness Interviews • Other techniques: wiretaps and search warrants • Cooperating Witnesses and consensual recordings • Staffer • Prosecutorial discretion

19. Building the Case(continued – recordings) • Building trust with cooperating witness • Convincing cooperating witness to make recordings • Getting cooperating witness invested in success of recordings

20. 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.

21. Building the Case(continued – recordings) • Results

22. 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

23. 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)

24. Building the Case(witness interviews - continued) • Actual Charges

25. 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

27. 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