New York State Senator Malcolm Smith has been arrested in what could be one of the highest-level examples of government corruption in recent years.
We all know that politicians are notorious for acting in ways that vary between morally gray and downright wrong, but even by those standards this is hard to ignore. Senator Smith has been charged with trying to bribe his way into New York City's mayoral position via the Republican Party.
"The complaint describes an unappetizing smorgasbord of graft and greed involving six officials who together built a corridor of corruption," says U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
Smith's plan was straightforward. He believed that there were more people in the Republican Party who would be amenable to accepting bribes, so he decided to raise enough money to pay off the leaders of Republican Part county committees across New York City.
According to reports, the FBI had an undercover agent on the case who posed as a rich land developer who was requesting that road developments be funded bear Spring Valley (just outside of NYC), the home of his next project. Smith assured him that he could use his political power to make that happen, so long as the agent could provide money to bribe several local officials into letting Smith be the Republican nominee.
Republican New York City Councilman Dan Halloran was also arrested for being Senator Smith's righthand man throughout the scheme, setting up meetings for him with other local Republican officials. Four other politicians have also been arrested in this bribery scandal, and all of those now in custody could see sentences for between 20 and 45 years in jail.
"After the string of public corruption scandals that we have brought to light, many may rightly resign themselves to the sad truth that perhaps the most powerful special interest in politics is self-interest," said Bharara. "We will continue pursuing and punishing every corrupt official we find, but the public corruption crisis in New York is more than a prosecutor's problem."
Smith and Halloran will both be charged with conspiracy and wire fraud and could serve up to 45 years in prison. Sadly, this is a recurring theme both in New York City and across the nation.
Last year former New York State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. was found guilty of embezzling over $600,000 money from health care clinics in New York City. Then just last month former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was found guilty on similar charges of stealing from the charity fund he helped create. Though politicians lying about taxes is a near certainty, an alarming trend of downright governmental corruption seems to be forming.
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