Thursday, February 26, 2009

Hall of Shame: Song for the Traveling Bribery Men

Hey, hey … there’s nowhere to run The SAD's sensitive air operations Is sad, sad and swept up in a fraud Hey, hey … there’s nowhere to run Conspiracy, conspiracy, had no mercy But gov’s $40 million is no controversy Cuz it’s all classified information, anyway.

Okay … I'm too tired to hunt for more rhymes and I’m sleep-deprived today but I did want to post this quickly …

This one on Kyle Dustin "Dusty" Foggo, the disgraced former No. 3 official at the CIA from Marcus Stern of ProPublica (February 25, 2009) “Corruption Touched CIA’s Covert Operations.” Excerpts below, read the full report here.

According to prosecutors and testimony included in the filing, Foggo arranged for his family to remain in Europe at taxpayer expense while he moved to Langley. He then arranged a CIA job for his mistress, identified only by the initials ER. At first the CIA ruled that ER was ineligible for employment because a background check found that she had an improper relationship with a superior in her previous government position and had destroyed evidence being sought by the inspector general of that agency.

"Instead of being receptive to her supervisor's critiques and suggestions, ER made it clear that she had influence with Foggo. Indeed, she did," the prosecutors' sentencing memo [2] states. "Her supervisor had been an attorney with the (CIA's Office of General Counsel) for 20 years, during which time she received numerous performance awards and even the Career Intelligence Medal, which rewards 'exceptional achievements that substantially contributed to the mission of the Agency' over the course of her career. Within months of crossing Foggo's mistress, however, she suffered a humiliating firing by Foggo."

The government's 24-page reply [1] to Foggo's sentencing memorandum, 31-page sentencing memo [2] and 82-page appendix [3] are full of such previously undisclosed material.

But here is the great part – Foggo is asking for the court’s consideration because he is a family man (p.17).

In the Government’s Sentencing Memorandum, the Acting US Attorney writes: "The Court will see that, despite his effectiveness as an administrator, Foggo was never a truly honest public servant. His charm and guile took him to the highest ranks of the Central Intelligence Agency, where he was finally exposed. For his crime, which spanned more than three years, and for the public he deprived of his honest services when they needed them most, Foggo deserves to be imprisoned for over three years."

And then here’s the other one.

AP reports that Michael John O'Keefe, Sr. who was formerly the deputy nonimmigrant visa chief at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto, Canada, has pleaded guilty to accepting an illegal gratuity, a felony that carries up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine. It also reports that O'Keefe is to be sentenced on June 19 so he can finish the semester at Southern New Hampshire University, where he is now a professor. The Union Leader however, reports that officials at Southern New Hampshire University, where Michael O'Keefe had worked as a part-time instructor since fall were stunned and said O'Keefe would no longer teach at the school. "Obviously, we will immediately remove him from the classroom," said Paul LeBlanc, the school's president. "We had no idea."

Hey, hey…there’s nowhere to run…

Update: The wires is reporting that it's a 37-month sentence for Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, which matched the prosecutors' recommendations. He pleaded guilty to a single count of fraud.

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