While financial CEOs use millions in taxpayer money to buy wastebaskets and credenzas for their offices, while the people who engineered the loss of trillions of dollars of shareholder equity reward themselves with millions in bonuses at taxpayer expense, and while people like Cheney, who handed out no-bid contracts to the firm he headed and still owned stock in, still walk around free, it's good to know that the government is keeping its hawkeye out for REAL crooks! Truly, the biggest mistake is committing too small a crime.
Maryland contractor sentenced to 2 1/2 years for bribing government official with $55,000
NEDRA PICKLER
AP News
Feb 05, 2009 16:13 EST
A contractor who once worked for the Treasury Department was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison Thursday for bribing a government official with $55,000 to win construction contracts.
Daniel Money, 44, of Shady Side, Md., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina after pleading guilty to a bribery charge. He has to forfeit $95,000 in profits he made on one contract, pay a $7,500 fine and reimburse the Treasury Department $2,250 for stealing about 600 gallons of diesel fuel....
The [bribed] government official was not named in the bribery case. But court documents say he is the facilities services officer for the Tax Court and was responsible for awarding construction contracts.
The documents say the official gave Money information on two competing bids so that Money's would be the lowest, at $188,000, and then later gave Money a piece of paper with his fee written on it — $30,000. About two weeks later, Money furtively slipped the official $1,500 during a handshake at the court, according to the documents. They met a few weeks later in a court bathroom, where Money gave the official an additional $300.
The court official repeatedly asked Money about his slow payments, but Money said he had to make payments to the Internal Revenue Service and repeatedly promised more would be coming. Money later agreed to pay $25,000 more for a second contract, the court documents said.
Money also agreed that he filled 11 55-gallon drums on the back of his vehicle with diesel fuel that belonged to the Treasury Department."
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