So, now that I have finished crying because my browser crashed losing this entire diary entry and all the links I had open I shall try again.
I was asking myself recently about Westar and the whole bribery thing from a couple months back. Since I have lots of work I should be doing, I have decided to avoid it and post a long diary entry answering that question instead.
During the chaos of the New Year rolling in, this tiny piece on the federal case against the former CEO and Executive VP of Westar came up on the AP wire:
KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Two former Westar Energy Inc. executives pleaded not guilty in federal court yesterday to every charge in a 40-count indictment that accuses the two men with trying to loot the state's largest electric company while its stock sank and its debt soared. David Wittig, Westar's former chief executive, and Douglas T. Lake, its former executive vice-president and chief strategic officer, also beat back prosecutors' efforts to force them to account for money raised from the recent sale of any personal assets. Rich Hathaway, Assistant U.S. Attorney, said Mr. Wittig may have sold US$10-million in various assets, and Mr. Lake US$295,000 in Westar stock. The sales suggested both men might be a flight risk and could be trying to place assets out of the reach of the government, he said. U.S. Magistrate James O'Hara said federal law did not give him the authority to require such an accounting, and he did not infer from the sale that the two men were trying to hide the assets from prosecutors. Prosecutors have accused the two men of conspiring to take millions of dollars from Westar while Mr. Wittig was the company's top executive and while Mr. Lake served as its No. 2 official.
I'll keep up with this stuff, especially with the concerns over the "flight risk" of the two defendants (one of whom has already been convicted on federal charges).
While this crime is atrocious and messed with many folks pocket books - both investors and consumers - I'm guessing we here as dKos want the other side of the story. So for the political carnivores, here's the update on the investigations into Westar's and other's contributions to Texans for a Republican Majority.
First, there's a good overview here and here (this version is an appended version of the LA Times story which requires registration). And now on to court!
Trial date set for Westar's Texas PAC contributions
Mark Kind of The Business Journal of KC
Westar Energy Inc.'s contributions to a Texas political action committee controlled by U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay are scheduled for a court trial March 29.
A civil suit filed in Travis County, Texas, alleges that such corporate contributions violated Texas law, which prohibits most uses of corporate funds in political campaigns.
(... appended out part on a pending criminal case)
In the separate civil case, two Democratic candidates defeated by Republicans in the 2002 Texas House elections filed suit in March, two months before Westar's internal fund-raising memos came to light with the public release of the 360-page report on Wittig's activities.
The Washington-based group Public Citizen has described some of Westar's 2002 donations as apparent "bribes" because the internal memos indicate the company expected DeLay to reciprocate by helping weaken the Kansas Corporation Commission's power over Westar in the 2002 federal energy bill, which failed to pass.
"We have a plan for participation to get a seat at the table which has been approved by David," said the memo from Douglas Lawrence, Westar public affairs vice president, referring to CEO Wittig. "The total of the package will be $31,500 in hard money (individual), and $25,000 in soft money (corporate).
"Right now, we have $11,500 in immediate needs for a group of candidates associated with Tom DeLay, (Rep.) Billy Tauzin, (Rep.) Joe Barton and Senator Richard Shelby," the memo said.
Saying that IRS reports indicate the $25,000 corporate donation went to TRM, Public Citizen says the payment advanced DeLay's efforts to elect more Republicans to the Texas statehouse, where they could boost his efforts to redraw Texas congressional district boundaries and improve the chances of Republicans running for Congress.
So it seems that this case is gaining some traction, but I have only a little optimism that the bug man won't squash this case like those in power tend to do. My only hope is that since this is a civil proceeding, the plantiffs have a much lessened burden on evidence, so they might be able to make more progress then the criminal investigation. However, I know nothing of Texas civil procedure so I keep that hope in check.
Also, since the case isn't starting until March 29th, I doubt there will be much ammo coming from the proceding until late in to the election cycle, possibly too late to be of any use like W's DUI conviction.
Over on the criminal side:
Also, a grand jury in the county, which contains the capital city of Austin, is determining whether state criminal charges are warranted, a spokesman for the Travis County prosecutor's office said.
IRS records indicate that under former CEO David Wittig, Kansas' largest electricity utility gave a $25,000 donation to Texans for a Republican Majority, said Andrew Wheat, research director for Texans for Public Justice.
The Texas Ethics Commission was not told of the corporate donors in the PAC's reports on fund raising, Wheat said. The group's March 2003 complaint apparently resulted in a secret grand jury investigation disclosed in November by National Public Radio.
"When we noticed the discrepancy we filed a complaint with the Travis County prosecutor here in Austin," Wheat said.
The part about the "Travis County prosecutor" should engender some optimism. It seems The Travis County DA is a man by the name of Ronnie Earle. From what little I've been able to find on him, he seems like an Austin version of my beloved Eliot Spitzer. This Op-Ed piece says that since his county is the seat of the State government, his office keeps a watchful eye on goings on all over the state. This is nice since Travis county is home to Austin aka The Whitehead on the Redneck of Texas, where liberal isn't a dirty word and sometimes integrity wins out.
Also, it seems that two people have been granted immunity in exchange for testimony including John Colyandro, former head of Texans for a Republican Majority. Colyandro isn't talking right now, so all that we have is speculation about what his testimony could contain.
Anyone out there have more info to add? Or more importantly, can anyone make analysis of all of this?
It seems that Texas is more polarized then the rest of the country and that this has the potential to be something really big. Delay is going to fight it with all of his might, but the Dems know that there will be no way to compromise on this case. If they leave the slightest opening they are dead in the water and will be redistricted out of existence.