Brickbat: Kick It Back

A jury has found former Puerto Rico House of Representatives member María Milagros "Tata" Charbonier and her husband Orlando Montes-Rivera guilty of conspiracy, theft, bribery, kickbacks concerning programs receiving federal funds, wire fraud, and money laundering. While in office, Charbonier increased the pay of her assistant, Frances Acevedo-Ceballos, from $800 to between $2,100 and $2,900 in each biweekly paycheck. But the assistant kicked back between $1,000 and $1,500 of each paycheck to Charbonier, her husband, and their son.

Comments

[Adans smith]

Well she's got her Ta Ta's in a wringer.

[JesseAz]

You seem to be abreast of the situation.

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[Sometimes a Great Notion]

You'll ever make it to make to the big leagues, kid.

- Ben Nelson

[Fist of Etiquette]

PR has the chops to be a state.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Yeah...

Along the lines of Illinois.

[MoreFreedom]

No chance PR would be a state like Illinois, it would be worse. Having lived in PR, I know how corrupt the entire government is and how highly controlled commerce is there. Just search the internet for "puerto rico corruption" and you'll see many government officials have been prosecuted, and Mother Jones has an article on "America's Worst Police Force" that provides a good overview.

What's surprising, is they actually prosecuted a "former" legislator. What's not surprising, is she was a conservative, and it was a federal court. A PR court is corrupt enough to let them go.

[Brandybuck]

If they were a state their commerce wouldn't be so tightly controlled. The other crap is still crap however.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

Wanna bet?

Let's go through the tally, shall we, with 891 convictions for public corruption between 2000 and 2020; 1,792 since 1976.

https://wirepoints.org/the-sickening-laundry-list-of-corruption-cases-in-illinois-continues-to-grow-is-this-any-way-to-govern-a-state-wirepoints/

The results for Illinois taxpayers are reprehensible. A May 2022 report from the University of Illinois-Chicago summarized conviction and indictments from 1976 to 2020, and noted that the Northern District of Illinois, including Chicago and Cook County, remains the most corrupt metro region nationally. The report’s lead author, UIC political scientist Dick Simpson, said, “The sheer number and political stature of the Illinois elected officials and business leaders who were implicated, indicted or convicted in 2020 is staggering.”

Start with education, supposedly a sacred space of righteous commitment by noble public servants only interested in “the children.”

Events too often torpedo that narrative. Another Chicago Public Schools official has copped to corruption. Former Brennemann Elementary School Principal Sarah Jackson Abedelal pleaded guilty in late June to a federal wire fraud charge and admitted she had asked teachers to submit fake overtime pay claims.

During part of that stretch, then-CPS CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett earned a four-and-a-half year sentence on federal corruption charges for steering more than $20 million in CPS contracts to a favored educational services consultant in return for special favors.

Former Chicago City Colleges Vice-Chancellor Sharod Gordon pled guilty to federal fraud charges in June 2021, as seven months earlier so had a City Colleges cohort charged along with Gordon. Gordon had been indicted in a scheme which allegedly netted eight people about $350,000 kicked back from City Colleges contract awards to phony vendor firms.

One more example of corruption in public education came in May of 2022 with the year-long federal prison sentence handed down to a former Chicago State University College of Pharmacy Dean named Carmita Coleman.

She was sentenced for embezzling $650,000 from a student organization which was supposed to be advancing racial diversity in the pharmacy industry.

In May 2022, former Illinois State Representative Luis Arroyo was sentenced to almost five years on a federal wire fraud charge tied to a bribery conviction.

In June, former Illinois State Senator Thomas E. Cullerton was sentenced to a year on a federal embezzlement charge for fraudulently receiving almost $250,000 in salary, bonuses and benefits from the Illinois labor organization Teamsters Joint Council 25.

Last week the ex-CEO of a Pennsylvania debt-collection firm was sentenced to three months on federal charges for making illegal payments on behalf of then-Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown to help cover costs of a 2014 Women’s History Month special event sponsored by Brown’s office.

And it goes on and on and on. My state makes PR looks like a bunch of pikers.

[JesseAz]

Ukraine of the sea.

[mad.casual]

I approve of Fani and Tatas sharing a jail cell.

[Idaho-Bob]

"New Progressive Party"...behaves exactly like the old prog party.

[Dillinger]

their accountant lacks imagination.

[mad.casual]

I was actually thinking "theft, bribery, kickbacks, wire fraud, money laundering" actually makes me kind of nostalgic as opposed to all the non-violent felony civil disorder, conspiracy to disrupt an official proceeding, and extra-chronological violation of campaign finance law novel construction bullshit.

[B G]

Who knew that graft under seven-figures was deemed to be even worth investigating in the US Congress? Don't those guys (and non-guys who also hold office) get $1k+ meals bought by lobbyists multiple times per week?

By Congressional standards, these "kickbacks" are barely a bar tab....

[Fyathyrio]

She got greedy, it has been well established by the current DoJ that the acceptable legal limit for graft is 10% to the big guy.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

"If he wasn't so fuckin' greedy, he'd have been tougher to spot. But in the end, they're all greedy."

[TJJ2000]

Why do I get the feeling this is "normal" behavior and there's something else to the story as to why she got caught.