Corruption in New England

It seems this is a disease here, government officials in bed with construction companies and developers, and they are all getting caught. Just heard this week about a new case. how stupid can these townies be if the freaking governor got caught doing the same thing a few years back. I wouldn't care one way or the other, except my tax dollars go to flush these dudes out. And I hate paying taxes. Does this stuff run rampant elsewhere? I am glad my pathetic operation is on the up and up, don't want my buddies seeing me on the news at 11:00.

What happened?

Here is a cut paste of the newspaper article:

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—A developer was indicted on charges of bribing a public official in Shelton with cash and work on his house, federal prosecutors said Monday.

James Botti, 45, of Shelton faces a seven-count indictment charging him with bribing a public official, mail fraud, making false statements to the Internal Revenue Service and other charges.

Botti appeared Monday in federal court in New Haven and was released on a $200,000 bond. His attorney, William Dow III, said Botti will plead not guilty to the charges.

"I was disappointed that the government thought they had to arrest him at his home in front of his children," Dow said. "I'm gratified that we were able to secure his release."

The indictment accuses Botti of proving cash and other benefits to a Shelton official only identified as "public official # 1," including payments to contractors and merchants in connection with work done at the official's residence in 2002.

When similar allegations surfaced against former Gov. John G. Rowland in 2003, Botti said "that what the governor did was nothing compared to what was done at public official # 1's residence," the indictment states.

Rowland spent 10 months in prison.

In 2004, the official provided Botti with a check for $19,654 to pay for services in 2002, according to the indictment.

Botti also permitted the official to take cash from an office safe where he kept hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the indictment. The official is called a co-conspirator in the indictment.

Dow and prosecutors would not identify the official.

Botti faces up to 55 years in prison and a fine of up to $1.75 million if convicted of all charges.

The indictment alleges Botti made a monetary payment and provided favors and benefits to the unnamed Shelton public official to reward and induce the public official to support a project Botti was developing, and to use his influence with the Shelton Planning and Zoning Commission.

Botti obtained approval for his project after a second vote that occurred before the Planning and Zoning Commission in June 2006 after the commission initially rejected the project, authorities said.

Botti provided the official with cash for using his influence with the commission, the indictment states. It also accuses him of providing gift certificates to two of the commissioners.

The indictment also alleges that, in December 2003, Botti said that if public official # 1 or any other public official tried to interfere with him, Botti would expose the corrupt activities of "17 developers and a good chunk of town hall" in Shelton.

Botti also is accused of conspiring with another person to structure cash deposits and lie to IRS agents about cash he maintained. The indictment details approximately $147,000 of deposits allegedly structured by Botti and his co-conspirator at numerous financial institutions in Connecticut.

Acting U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy said the investigation was continuing.

© Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Unfortunately, nothing new in The Constitution State...

Corruption in Government

We got alot of this kind of activity going on right here in Northeast Ohio. Cuyahoga County made most of the National News Channels, this past election, mostly with stories about false voter registrations and other tid bits of corruption. One of the County Commissioners is under investigation by the FBI, as well as the Auditor, for the same kind of crap Cropduster is talking about. The Libs have run Cuyahoga County since Mobey **** was a minnow and that should explain why Cleveland is a ceaspool and going nowhere. Cleveland's image ranks a notch above Detroit's and that's pathetic. The region is really a nice place to live. We just need to organize a Jim Jones Kool-Aid Party for all those in leadership roles!

Corruption is always rampant in construction no matter if it is unions or the gov. it seems to be human nature of greed.

The crooked contractor faces 55 years in prison. The crooked official on the take doesn´t even get named??

The crooked contractor is the one holding back the name of the crooked official. I just got back from vacation, and nothing has really come out of this case. It will be interesting, when the contractor begins to talk to see the little people he drags down with him. I understand quite a few minor players in the business sucked up to this guy, and did alot of his dirt and dirty work for him.

How about on the national level.

This is not political it is information.

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Again this is not political. This is not political it is information.

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This is for information and in no ways political in content.

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Sorry, Darryl, but repeating something often enough still doesn't make it true.

Now that I've edited your post, you're right, it's not political.

You presented "information", yes. The way I read it, it was apparent that the information presented was intended to sway my political thinking, and the political thinking of the other readers, about the subject of the information, which was the actions of our politicians.

It's that intent on your part that makes the contents political.

If somebody else presented a contrary amount of information with the intent of swaying political thinking in the other direction, that would be political as well, and would also be out of bounds. It would also be edited out.

On edit: I don't have time to read every word of every thread. None of the staff do. If you, or anybody else, sees a post that apparently has the intent of swaying political thinking, in a direction you don't agree with, report that post, and it'll be dealt with in the same way. The rules apply to all.