The bribery scandal that shot down Vietnam air ace and former Congressman Duke Cunningham may be spreading beyond Congress: The feds are gathering evidence on Kyle Foggo, outgoing No. 3 man at the CIA.
Foggo, whose boss, CIA Director Porter Goss, quit abruptly May 5, is being investigated by the FBI and the CIA inspector general to see if he improperly awarded contracts to San Diego businessman and friend Brent Wilkes. His home and office were searched Friday.
The inquiry stems from the case of Cunningham, who was sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison after pleading guilty to accepting millions in bribes from military contractors.
Also last week, the scandal surrounding disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff resurfaced when the former top aide to Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges. Ney has not been charged, but he has been described in court papers as receiving gifts and travel from Abramoff.
One would like to think of these cases as isolated, inside-the-Beltway aberrations. But, unfortunately, they may be the tip of a national iceberg.
Since 2001, the FBI has stepped up public-corruption investigations. As The New York Times reported last week, the government has launched more than 2,000 public-corruption cases that run up and down the political scale.
In 2004 and 2005 alone, more than 1,060 government employees and officials at all levels, including 177 federal officials, 158 state officials, 360 local officials and 365 police officers were convicted of corruption, according to FBI numbers.
As FBI Director Robert Mueller noted, the bureau doesn’t care if a crooked official is a Republican or a Democrat. Last week, a Louisville, Ky., businessman pleaded guilty to paying more than $400,000 in bribes to Rep. William J. Jefferson, D-La., who has denied taking payments for favors. And Gov. Ernie Fletcher, R-Ky., was indicted Thursday on state misdemeanor charges of criminal conspiracy and official misconduct for allegedly hiring his cronies.
Former Illinois Gov. George Ryan was convicted last month of 18 counts of steering state business to supporters and misusing state resources. A former top aide was sentenced this week for his role in the scheme.
Colorado isn’t immune: Last year, motor vehicle employees were charged with illegally selling commercial and regular driver’s licenses to unqualified persons. Last week, the co-founder of an Adams County charter school was slapped with 14 charges of embezzling $72,000 in school funds.
As Mueller noted, “public corruption tears the fabric of a democratic society” and leads to distrust of government, and there’s already too much of that going around these days.
