PUBLIC CORRUPTION FBI
When a citizen has to ride on a dirty bus or dodge potholes going to work, sometimes it’s because a local municipality is temporarily short of funds or personnel are out sick, but other times the reasons are more sinister and suggest maybe a vendor paid a “kickback” to secure a contract and now they’re cheating on materials and/or labor to save money. Because corruption can undermine the public’s trust and cause people to become suspect about its government, FBI Director William H. Webster described Public Corruption as an insidious crime which he thought should be aggressively pursued. And in an effort to effectively manage the FBI’s resources, he established White Collar Crime, Organized Crime, and Foreign Counterintelligence as Bureau priorities.
Speaking about “corrupt” public officials, Webster said crimes committed by public officials are often difficult to detect because they’re born by willing participants or “insiders,” with few if any witnesses to cry “foul” or alert authorities. Because the crimes are difficult to detect, he was an avid supporter of agents using the “undercover” technique. In general, he thought “undercover” operations allowed prosecutors to avoid having to rely on a single witness to testify about a crime.
Shortly after becoming Director, Webster authorized the ABSCAM investigation—arguably the Bureau’s most important and best known corruption probe—responsible for prosecuting six [6] members of Congress who sought “bribes” from an FBI undercover agent posing as an Arab-sheik. Since the ABSCAM probe, the FBI has conducted a number of prominent “undercover” investigations involving Public Corruption, including case code named GREYLORD that concerned Chicago jurists “fixing” traffic violations and Operations LOST TRUST and BRISPEC where members of the South Carolina and California State Legislatures were prosecuted for soliciting “bribes” in exchange for providing legislative support.
In the ABSCAM investigation, Mr. WEDICK played brief undercover roles with Mel Weinberg—the government’s chief cooperating witness—in two fraud investigations in Florida and Texas. And in the BRISPEC investigation, he was the case agent responsible for orchestrating the undercover scenario used to collect evidence demonstrating legislators in California were seeking bribes.
In the event you’re seeking a Private Investigator [PI] with a background conducting complicated Public Corruption probes, Mr. WEDICK suggests you make contact with him either at his office and/or send a brief email requesting assistance.
