Quite the shocker - corruption in the District of Columbia
From the
Bellingham Herald:
DC quietly takes from workers' retirement plan
The District of Columbia government is taking a portion of workers' retirement contributions for "administrative expenses" without telling them, and part of the cut goes to the accounting firm of embattled businessman Jeffrey Thompson.
The company that runs the plan, ING, takes a small portion of the balance and returns it to the city - $212,000 in the most recent fiscal year. The money is supposed to cover the cost to the city of overseeing the plan.
Among the expenses paid from that amount is a fee to Washington-based Bazilio Cobb Associates for an annual audit. The accounting firm - formerly known as Thompson, Cobb, Bazilio and Associates, or TCBA - changed its name in July after Thompson, who's at the center of a wide-ranging federal probe of corruption in district government, left the firm and sold his ownership stake. Authorities raided the firm earlier this year in connection with the investigation.
None of that information is provided to workers when they agree to contribute part of their paychecks to the plan.
And now the coverup begins -- more:
Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi declined to comment, referring all questions to his spokesman, who said there was nothing illegal or unusual about the arrangement. Pedro Ribeiro, a spokesman for D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, said the mayor's office had not been aware of the money taken from the plan before The Associated Press asked about it. He declined any further comment.
Federal prosecutors are investigating Thompson in connection with the suspected use of $650,000 in off-the-books funds to help elect Gray in 2010. Although Thompson has not been charged with a crime and is not identified by name in court documents, two people familiar with the probe said Thompson is the businessman who funded what federal prosecutors called a "shadow campaign" on Gray's behalf. The individuals spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information.
Time to drain the swamp...
Posted by DaveH at September 19, 2012 3:50 PM