USAID corruption scheme: it was good while it lasted …
… and this particular one lasted a long long time:
Four men, including a government contracting officer for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and three owners and presidents of companies, have pleaded guilty for their roles in a decade-long bribery scheme involving at least 14 prime contracts worth over $550 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars.
Roderick Watson, 57, of Woodstock, Maryland, who worked as a USAID contracting officer, pleaded guilty to bribery of a public official;
Walter Barnes, 46, of Potomac, Maryland, who was the owner and president of PM Consulting Group LLC doing business as Vistant (Vistant), a certified small business under the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) contracting program, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official and securities fraud;
Darryl Britt, 64, of Myakka City, Florida, who was the owner and president of Apprio, Inc. (Apprio), a certified small business under the SBA 8(a) contracting program, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official; and
Paul Young, 62, of Columbia, Maryland, who was the president of a subcontractor to Vistant and Apprio, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official.
“Watson exploited his position at USAID to line his pockets with bribes in exchange for more than $550 million in contracts. While he helped three company owners and presidents bypass the fair bidding process, he was showered with cash and lavish gifts,” said Chief Guy Ficco of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). “Through its financial crime investigations, IRS-CI works to protect taxpayer dollars and ensure government funds are awarded based on merit — not corruption. In close coordination with our law enforcement partners, IRS-CI helped put an end to their greed and criminal conduct. Now, Watson and his co-conspirators will face justice.” …
During the scheme, Britt and Barnes paid bribes to Watson that were often concealed by passing them through Young, who was the president of another subcontractor to Apprio and Vistant. … The bribes were also often concealed through electronic bank transfers falsely listing Watson on payroll, incorporated shell companies, and false invoices. Watson is alleged to have received bribes valued at more than approximately $1 million as part of the scheme.
I doubt this is an isolated case.
Is anyone on earth surprised by this? I doubt it.
And yet, most people have had no opportunity to be either surprised or unsurprised, because the story is hardly being covered. Oh, the NY Post has a piece: see this. But I haven’t been able to get any links to the case through the NY Times, the WaPo, CNN, CBS, or ABC. Even Fox News is only covering it as a local story, as far as I can tell: see this. The local Baltimore paper covers it, too: see this.
This is obviously a national story of no small importance, and it should be receiving wide national coverage. It’s also completely obvious that if there was an angle in it that could hurt Trump, it would be front-page news at all those outlets. Sometimes they get their talking points, and sometimes they get their “keep your mouth shut” points.
Gotta love the work “certified” can do.
Certified to drive you nuts. Certified to steal you soul along with your tax dollar. Certified to worm its way into nearly every transaction on the globe. Certified to sit at the bottom of every con known to man.
The sentences for the individuals involved will be way too low based on what they pled to doing: according to DoJ, “Watson is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 6, and faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. Young is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 3 and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Britt is scheduled to be sentenced on July 28 and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Barnes is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 14 and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.”
The problem with these “white collar crimes” is that, no matter their magnitude or the number of people their criminal actions have damaged, they never are given sentences commensurate with the impact of their crimes, I assume because bo actual physical violence was involved.
It seems to me that these “non-violent ” crimes can do much more and more lasting damage than violent crimes might do.
Moreover, when large fines and restitution are part of the perp’s punishment, you don’t often see reports that that money is ever paid, since I assume that most of the money they stole has long since been spent, or hidden away somewhere, and the perps make every effort to make it impossible to pay, thus, on the surface, the perps are unable to pay these large fines and amounts of restitution.
Yeah, I can only imagine the din and clatter and hew and cry if the shoe was on the other foot. It’s unsurprising but truly depressing how unapologetically partison and propagandistic the Legacy Media is. Essentially a very significant swath of the voting public will know absolutely nothing about this story whatsoever, and even if they manage to hear something about it they’ll likely dismiss it as false since it’s not coming from what they consider a “trusted” Legacy Media source.
Keeping people in the dark results in keeping people living in two different realities, and keeps people at loggerheads.
Neo
I am reminded of that timeless Iowahawk quote:
I am reminded that my yellow-dog-NYC-Democrat cousin didn’t know anything about the Hunter Biden laptop story until well after the 2020 election.
One could call it black collar crime, as it appears that the perps are all black — excuse me, Black — although it’s not easy to find that out.
@ Gringo > “I am reminded that my yellow-dog-NYC-Democrat cousin didn’t know anything about the Hunter Biden laptop story until well after the 2020 election.”
NPR probably sealed their defunding with their “explanations” of why the story was unimportant (never used by any legit journalist ever).
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/npr-explained-why-its-not-covering-the-hunter-biden-laptop-story-and-now-president-trumps-son-wants-to-defund-it-11603386611
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/npr-ceo-admits-outlet-was-mistaken-in-refusing-to-cover-hunter-biden-laptop-story/
“Even Fox News is only covering it as a local story, as far as I can tell:”
I remember that PBS or NPR actually called the laptop revelations a “local story” of no importance, but I can’t find a post using those words.
Maybe I’m hallucinating like Grok.
This is but the beginning if they want to continue digging. It always was a grift program.
I long ago stopped getting upset when the Democratic media covered, and failed to cover, stories in light of being the Democratic media. As Rush Limbaugh pointed out many years ago, if you’re waiting around for fair treatment from the old media, you’ll wait forever. If you can’t be content until the NYT/CBS/ABC/NBC/etc validate your views, you will hunger for validation forever.
The good news is that they matter less and less with the passage of time.
(If Sophie will kindly let me get a word in here, edgewise…)
…Hey, speaking of, um, DEMOCRATIC PARTY CORRUPTION (on a scale so massive that our Merdia betters understand totally—and wholeheartedly—that “there’s nuthin’ to see here, folks”), THIS might be the reason—among several others—why
DecentSenescent Joe was THE MOST POPULAR presidential candidate in American history!!“FBI Gives Congress Intel On Alleged Chinese Plot To Create Fake Mail-In Ballots In 2020”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fbi-gives-congress-intel-alleged-chinese-plot-create-fake-mail-ballots-2020
Premise #1 : If there’s a way to make money, then someone will make money.
Premise #2 : If someone is spending money, then there’s a way to make money.
Therefore,
Conclusion #1 : If someone is spending money, then someone will make money
Premise #3 : The US government is always spending money.
Therefore,
Conclusion #2 : Someone is always making money from the government.
Premise #4 : If there’s a way to cheat, then someone will cheat.
Therefore,
Conclusion #3 : Someone is always cheating the government.
@ richf
Conclusion #5 via Premise #3 The government is always spending money, therefore someone IN the government is cheating, and helping other people cheat.
Just a thought experiment:
If we get what we incentivize,
and we are incentivizing graft and cheating at the tax payers’ expense,
and 5 to 15 year conventional prison sentences are not adequate disincentives;
then perhaps we need to reconsider “cruel and unusual” punishment and engage in “creative” punishment.
I have come to believe that when it comes to capital punishment and state executions, vs. cases of people later proven innocent of murder or whatever; perhaps we can live with a compromise that denies the convict a real life, since he was found guilty via our best attempts at due process; but there is always a “possibility” that new evidence will come to light. Then perhaps we should consider a punishment of putting him in a controlled coma, so we have not actually killed him and he can be revived to address new evidence, etc. if it arises.
Now, I also just read a book about neuroscience and studies of consciousness, and it had a chapter on people in various states of brain death, coma, awake and aware but paralyzed, etc. So there are cases where someone can be both (basically) dead and alive if they are not responsive, or only show some levels of brain response with selected stimuli and studies, etc. Now imagine if that condition could be created in a controlled way and if the punishment for white collar (or Black collar) crime was to be sentenced to a period of time in that condition. Perhaps that incentive would be great enough to avoid criminal activity??
This is the most important domestic news all week. Not covered because Dem media wants to avoid the Truth which hurts Dems, just like they avoid Truth that helps Reps. They only like 2 / 4ths of Truth, that which helps Dems or hurts Reps.
Half truths all the way down.
I wish Trump & critics of the MSM would ask “Why don’t you tell the truth?”