Brazzil

......In Brazil are like corruption : A MUST ! And without corruption....nothing is done properly and on time !
Corruption, red tape and briberies are in brazilians bloods to make more money than they already make legally and to avoid taxes....of course ! And all this with the blessings of the government and politicians, who also get their "fair" shares of this
business.....equally tax free for them....of course !

But saying the a US real estate agent is similar to Despanchetes is totally incorrect : they just do Real Estate....nothing else !

Furthermore if they put in their contract that they will charge you 15 % of the first year rent, there is nothing illegal since it is legal, binding and official !
Do Despachantes charge you a flat fee for the same service to multiple clients...or fees differ depending of the clients ?
Do they write a contract with their fees written...on top of the official legal/administrative fees, ? Doubtful ! They could not then avoid taxes without justification of their real official spendings and illegal payment activities !

HII! IM from BRASIL but im living in USA for 6 months...
i love this web site! now i can live here and be aware of everything that is happening there!
Thanks!
bye!

I´ve been living and working in Brazil for the past 9 years and I resent the " central role" you ascribe to the Despachantes. How will this bloated, burocratic, inefficient improve if you advocate paying intermediaties to `grease the wheels` in order to get things done??? I´m sorry but , in my opinion it´s not the way to bring Brazil forward but is more like a throwback to the Middle Ages. Transparency and Accountability is what´s needed ..

In America the system is the same.

In America if you are rich you getting things much faster then the regular people.


In Washington DC most corporations have lobbyists that work for then to make sure they pass laws that would make the corporations richer. Did you check the Exon profit this week?


What about the movies stars? They not even go to jail. Mel Gibson Paris Hilton etc.

In Brazil a least the regular Joe can beat the system with some cash.

In America the ruling of the law only applies to the poor


In America if you have one million dollars you can have your green card in 180 days

If you have no money and you want to bring you brother that is over 21 to America you have to wait 10 years.

So I guess in Brazil the system works better for the regular Joe

Ohhhh Nooooo !
- In America, every citizen can get forms and documents to be filled, and handled normally by the administrations ! No need to pay an intermediary and worse, to bribe bureaucrats to get things done by the adminsitrations !
- Lobbying is not in America Only. Lobbying is made all over the world, in Brazil or France too. Even in Zimbabwe or China.
- How much you bet that Brazilians pay a lot of money to American Lobbyists, and that American pay a lot of money to Brazilian Lobbyists !

- Lobby is an industry, just like Lawyers or Marketing ! And in developped countries Lobbyists get paid for Their Job, but they wont bribe with cash the bureaucrats. On the other hand, it is such a mess in Brazil, that in the Despachantes bills, there is the hidden bribes paid to the civil servants to accelerate the handling of administrative. forms.

Therefore Lobbyists and Despachantes have nothing in common !

Despachantes are like those specialized in handling the imports/exports of goods and handle the administrative forms....on your behalf. But again, in developed countries, there is no need to pay a civil servant to put a stamp in adminstrative forms, or to pay this civil servant to put the stamp within 2 days instead of within 3 weeks !

Just look at your ranking in the latest "Doing Business" report from the World Bank !
Brazil is ranked 121 out of 182 countries, knowing that 95 % of those ranked below Brazil are not even developed or developing countries but The Third World Countries !

Brazil ranking is even well below the ranking of almost all your neighbouring countries !

In having such a lifestyle of doing business, dont be surprised therefore that Brazil has the lowest economic growth rate of ALL non developed countries. For 2005 you have beaten only Haïti which is not even a developing country but a LDC.

And here is a news that few people know :
Although 2006 is not yet over, 2006 could very well end up as a repeat of 2005 !!!!!!
Yessss ! And this is a recent estimate of Brazilian and Foreign Combined report !!!!
On request, I will provide my sources !

Truly Great that Brazilians will re-elect a President who is not only corrupted and a liar, but also a President proud of having had the lowest economic growth rate !

Fascinating how Brazilians are either ignorants or stupids !
Fascinating too how Brazilians electors swallow the lies of Lula !

In that sense only, Yesssssss Lula is really great !

Are you sure you live in America?


olitical corruption: Corruption saps government of credibility

Collegian's editorial opinion is determined by its Board of Opinion, with the editor holding final responsibility.


Our government is in a sad state right now.

Sure you've heard it all before, and whether you blame it on Republicans or Democrats, you can't deny the fact that the stink of corruption is emanating heavily from our state and federal government buildings.

The most recent incident comes from Philadelphia. The FBI recently raided the homes of Rep. Curt Weldon's daughter and a friend "as it investigates whether the congressman improperly helped the pair win lobbying and consulting contracts," according to a CNN article.

Weldon is calling the investigation politically motivated and said there is no truth to the matter.

Of course it is only an allegation at the moment, but it still does nothing to increase confidence in our government.

The same goes for the recent scandal from Florida where former Rep. Mark Foley allegedly made advances toward male pages when he should have been concerned about representing his constituents.

What makes the situation even worse is there is a very real possibility that House Speaker Dennis Hastert knew about the advances and did nothing.

Now obviously there are hundreds of politicians who aren't corrupt, but, unfortunately, they don't make the news.

Our nation, instead, is only exposed to the scum that rises to the top of the proverbial politician mix.

And it's this scum that shatters our confidence in our politicians.

If we can't trust them, whom can we trust?

What's worse is that it creates a cycle that forebodes nothing good for our country. While corruption in politics has been happening since we became a nation, it seems all the more prevalent in recent years.

Yeah, Nixon was breaking into hotel rooms decades ago, but has corruption ever been in the public eye as much as it has been over the last decade? President Clinton was two-timing Hillary and lying to us when we were in middle school. Then came the Whitewater controversy.

Unfortunately we've grown up in a world where political corruption has been in the public eye like it never has before.

Woodward and Bernstein started a trend where news media holds the government responsible for its action.

Now news organizations actively search out political corruption, which is great because it holds our leaders responsible.

But it also seems like this trend has led our generation to not trust our government, which may be the reason we are possibly the most apathetic generation, in terms of voting, the United States has ever seen.

Just like our politicians aren't listening to their conscience, we're not listening to ours.

If our current politicians are corrupt, let's make sure we vote in politicians who aren't.

It's our civic duty to hold our leaders accountable for their actions.

There's an election coming up on Nov. 7, and we can only hold our leaders accountable if we are the ones who vote them into office.

Drug, human smugglers spread border corruption
As security tightens, problem of payoffs worsens, from local to federal agencies
- Ralph Vartabedian, Richard A. Serrano, Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times
Wednesday, October 25, 2006

(10-25) 04:00 PDT El Paso, Texas -- Bribery of federal and local officials by Mexican smugglers is rising sharply, and with it the fear that a culture of corruption is taking hold along the 2,000-mile border from Brownsville, Texas, to San Diego.

At least 200 public employees have been charged with helping to move narcotics or illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexican border since 2004, at least double the illicit activity documented in prior years, a Los Angeles Times examination of public records has found. Thousands more are under investigation.

Criminal charges have been brought against Border Patrol agents, local police, a county sheriff, motor vehicle clerks, an FBI supervisor, immigration examiners, prison guards, school district officials and uniformed personnel of every branch of the U.S. military, among others. The vast majority have pleaded guilty or been convicted.

Officials in Washington and along the border worry about what lies below the surface. "It is the tip of the iceberg," said James "Chip" Burrus, assistant director of the criminal investigation division of the FBI. "There is a lot more down there. The problem is, you don't know what you don't know."

What is known -- from court cases, other public records and dozens of interviews -- is alarming enough. Some schemes have displayed considerable sophistication among Mexican drug lords, and their success shows a discouraging willingness by public employees to take tainted money.

Although the U.S. southern border may evoke images of a poor backwater, it is alive with vast amounts of ill-gotten wealth, shadowy organizations that ply the waters of the Rio Grande, and brazen schemes that seem borrowed out of Cold War espionage.

Perhaps the most revealing example of smugglers' savvy was their cultivation of the highest-ranking FBI official in El Paso, Special Agent in Charge Hardrick Crawford.

FBI agents thought they had turned alleged drug kingpin Jose Maria Guardia into an informant, but Guardia was working as a double agent for the Mexican drug lords. He drew Crawford into a personal friendship and provided a job for Crawford's wife, a country club membership for the couple and family trips to Las Vegas.

In August, after the chummy relationship became public, Crawford was convicted on federal charges of trying to conceal his friendship with Guardia. He could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined a half-million dollars.

Drug rings once planted a mole in a federal agency, and officials worry others are lurking. The rings have entangled U.S. agents in sexual relationships. And they have amassed files on individual U.S. agents, with details about their finances, families and habits -- even the kind of bicycles their kids ride.

"They hire guys to watch the narcotics agents," says Lee Morgan II, who retired as the head of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Douglas, Ariz., this year. "They know what time we get up in the morning. When we go to work. What kind of car your wife drives.

"We had an informant tell us he saw a film of us as we exited our office that was being shown in Mexico. They had our license plate numbers."

The Mexican criminal networks can afford lavish payoffs. Bribery payments have topped $1 million.

Paul Charlton, U.S. attorney for Arizona since 2001, is convinced that border corruption is worsening -- and jeopardizing the trust that U.S. communities place in their government.

"The concern for me is that we can very quickly develop a culture that would be more accepting of that kind of misconduct," Charlton said. "You only have to look south of the border to see what happens when a certain level of corruption is accepted."

Officials warn that the risk of public corruption will grow as Congress and the Bush administration respond to public demands to improve border security. Customs and Border Protection, a part of the Department of Homeland Security, wants to add 10,000 employees to its workforce of 42,000, most of whom are already stationed along the Mexican border.

"If you increase the number of people on the border, you are going to get more corruption," said the FBI's Burrus.

Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar said the Border Patrol has increased ethics training at its academy and set up anticorruption programs in the field, and he said it conducts new background checks on its agents every five years.

But such efforts sometimes stand little chance against the greed of weak agents and the power of smugglers with money to spread around.

"They are going to try to find ways to breach our enforcement efforts," said Aguilar. "They will try to flank us, tunnel us, fly over and to corrupt our efforts."

by Alan Burkhart
A Culture of Conundrums
October 27, 2006 01:18 PM EST

The upcoming elections are problematic at best. How does one vote with any confidence when both major parties are up to their eyeballs in scandal? How does one place any faith in the Republicans when they’ve fallen flat on their faces on so many major issues? How can we take the Democrats seriously when they no longer even bother to cover up their lies and political game-playing?

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that when one party makes an accusation against the other, that accusation is likely to be true of both parties. Dirty politics has reached new lows in recent years. Candidates are far more likely to seek election based upon how badly they can scandalize the opposition, rather than trying to honestly earn our votes. And there are plenty of scandals to go around.

The list reads like a Who’s Who of weak ethics, sexual perversion and naked avarice. William Jefferson, Mark Foley, Harry Reid, Tom Delay, Nancy Pelosi, Bob Ney and others continue to hog the headlines in an orgy of pure old trashy behavior. Each party shamelessly points its greasy fingers at the other and shouts “corruption” at the top of its lungs. Neither party has the character to look inward and clean up its own mess.

All this might be easier to take if our government was being run with some semblance of efficiency. Unfortunately, it seems they’re all too busy slinging mud and rhetoric to accomplish anything worthwhile.

The Democrat Party hasn’t had a fresh idea in fifty years. The Republicans have actually presented a few good ideas, but lack the spine to act upon them. All in all, our government has become an international embarrassment to the people it supposedly serves. Beneath the dome of the capitol, where once dwelt hard-working men and women who had the nation’s interests at heart, now lurks a pack of power-hungry, money-grubbing thieves and liars. Their votes are for sale to the highest bidder, and no average citizen can hope to outbid the power players who lobby congress for dozens of special interest groups. Regardless of which side of the ideological fence you call home, you have little true representation in Washington.

At the White House, a once-popular President muddles along, telling us to “stay the course” while operatives of radical Islam stream across our border with Mexico. George W. Bush has no intentions of securing our border, in spite of the fact that the vast majority of Americans have screamed loudly for proper enforcement. America’s sovereignty is for sale, and more and more American jobs will soon be on the auction block as the Bush Administration prepares to bypass our ports and remove the last barriers restraining the flood of cheap products from China and Mexico. Bush is even planning a gigantic foreign-operated superhighway to accommodate the invasion.

So -- who do we vote for in November?

As bad as they are, the GOP still seems to be the best choice. While the current crop of Republicans are but a faded shadow of the 1994 Conservative Revolution, the party’s platform still comes closer to American values than that of the Democrats. The Deaniac Democrats have drifted so far leftward that they bear no resemblance to the party that stood for the working man back in the 40’s and 50’s. They’re little more than a gang of socialists, and America is not a socialist nation. The Democrat Party is undeserving of our votes.

The Repubs however, are only marginally better. Both parties are rife with corruption. Both pay lip service to border security while seeking to pave the way for 15 million illegal immigrants to gain a legal foothold on our soil. Both play the War on Terror and our economy to their own political advantage.

The best that any common-sense American can hope for at this point is that the Republicans retain control of the House and Senate, and elect new leadership to lift them out of their doldrums and put America back on track. Whether it’s a Republican flirting with young boys, or a Democrat with $90,000 in his freezer, our government absolutely must clean the skeletons out of its closets and get back to the job of running this country.

As Americans, we have the right and the obligation to expect better of our elected leaders.

Related Reading:

Nancy Pelosi

Mark Foley

www.cbsnews. com/stories/2006/10/11/ap/politics/mainD8
KMJ8I00.shtml&frame=true" target="_blank">Harry Reid

Tom Delay

William Jefferson

Bob Ney

Alan Burkhart is a freelance writer, cross-country trucker, and proud citizen of the reddest of the Red States - Mississippi. You can reach him by visiting his website: alanburkhart.blogspot.com or by e-mail at alan@alanburkhart.com

Republicans tarnished by failure to clean up government
By Edward Luce and Holly Yeager in Washington
Financial Times


Updated: 9:42 p.m. PT Oct 27, 2006
Twelve years ago the Republican Party swept to control of the US House of Representatives for the first time in a generation on the promise "to restore accountability to Congress, to end its cycle of scandal and disgrace and to make us all proud again of the way free people ­govern themselves".

If, as polls suggest, the Democrats regain ­control of the House in mid-term congressional elections next month, Dennis Hastert, the speaker since 1999, will attract much of the blame. Indeed, many of Mr Hastert's fellow Republicans are dishing out "pre-criminations" in anticipation of defeat.

Mr Hastert, who signed the "Contract with America" that helped the Republicans to victory in 1994, was this week questioned by the House ethics committee for his alleged role in helping cover up the behaviour of Mark Foley, a colleague, who made lewd advances to teenage interns via e-mail over a period of years. Mr Hastert denies that he learned of Mr Foley's behaviour more than a year ago.

But many congressional observers say the Foley sex scandal, which has damaged Republican electoral prospects since it became public this month, has overshadowed far more serious allegations about what has taken place under Mr Hastert's speakership.

Among these were a detailed investigation into Mr Hastert's flourishing personal finances published in the Chicago Tribune, which showed the speaker had booked $2m (€1.6m, £1.05m) in profits from a land sale in his home state of Illinois.

The sale was in December 2005, three months after President George W. Bush signed the $286bn highways bill into law. Mr Hastert had inserted a $207m earmark (a tailored clause) into the bill to fund a public highway in Illinois that runs three miles from his property.

Following the bill, the value of the land soared and Mr Hastert, who owned most of the 138-acre property, booked the profits. He bought one parcel of land in 2002 and a second, held in a secret trust, in 2004. He has denied any impropriety. "I owned land and I sold it, just like millions of people do every day," he said. Mr Hastert did not return calls seeking ­comment.

But Mr Hastert's response failed to convince sceptics for whom the episode serves as an emblem of what has gone wrong under his speakership. "Here you have the speaker inserting federal money into federal legislation that directly results in his personal enrichment," said Scott Lilly, a former career staff member in the House appropriations committee. "It is breathtaking."

Others, including a growing number of disenchanted Republicans, point to a culture of runaway deficit spending fuelled by the influence of lobby groups.

The number of federal investigations into congressional ­corruption has leapt. One of Mr Hastert's colleagues was imprisoned this year and two more face trial. A further seven are under investigation.

"The Republicans swept to power on the promise of cleaning up government and controlling deficits and the opposite has happened," said Thomas Mann, a veteran observer of Congress at the Brookings Institution in Washington. "As speaker, Mr Hastert has done more damage to the institution of Congress than any other in my lifetime. He has been willing to set aside any rule, procedure, tradition or norm to further whatever agenda he was serving."

Recent polls show public approval for Congress has fallen to a record low of 16-23 per cent, depending on the pollster. "When you get down that low, you're down to blood relatives and paid staffers," John McCain, a senator and likely Republican presidential contender in 2008, told an audience in South Dakota last week. "We need to reform ethics. We need to reform lobbying. We need to restore the faith and confidence of the American people in our institutions of government."

Many are sceptical as to whether Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader who will probably succeed Mr Hastert if the Democrats win, can fulfil her promise to clean up Congress by tightening its ethics and requiring lawmakers to declare any interest in the earmarks they sponsor.

But few can miss the irony that Ms Pelosi is promising very similar reforms to those put forward by Mr Hastert and his colleagues in 1994. "It would certainly be in Ms Pelosi's interests to attempt to clean up Congress," said Mr Mann.

"My guess is that she'll try for a while. But sooner or later the larger forces at work will start to reassert themselves."

Copyright The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved.
URL: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15448789/

Money in exchange for U.S. citizenship?
Retired federal immigration official accused of approving immigrations applications for money
WABC Eyewitness News

(New York-WABC, Oct. 26, 2006) - A recently retired federal immigration official was charged with taking bribes in exchange for citizenships for dozens of ineligible illegal immigrants.
Eyewtitness News has learned 54-year-old Jimmie Ortega, a former Supervisory District Adjudications Officer with the naturalization unit of the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, was among the eleven people charged in a indictment unsealed this morning in federal court in Lower Manhattan.

Ortega, working with other federal employees, used his position to have citizenship applications for illegal immigrants approved for cash payoffs.

Investigators say he received bribes ranging from $1,500 to $4,000 from at least 20 aliens in connection with the scheme.

Ortega, who retired from his position in April, employed brokers who found the illegal immigrants able to pay cash for citizenships.

One finder, Rafaelina Pichardo, recruited some fifteen aliens who agreed to pay bribes in exchange for citizenship.

According to police Ortega is charged with one count of conspiracy; four counts of soliciting bribes; and eight counts of procuring or attempting to procure naturalization unlawfully.

If convicted, Ortega, of Lindenhurst, faces a maximum sentence of 145 years' imprisonment.

"This case exposes a naturalization supervisor who is charged with taking money to provide citizenship to ineligible aliens, and naturalization employees who are charged with assisting him, U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said.

"This kind of corruption does a serious disservice to the thousands of honest CIS employees and to all those immigrants who follow the rules in attempting to obtain the benefits of citizenship."

(Copyright 2006 WABC-TV)

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I guess most of the dirty in America does not appearin the research of this so call "RANKING" of corrupts countries.

proabable only 5% of this people really goes tojail.

95% of the corruption cases are never uncover.

Lobbyist give money to politicians, from certain interest groups, to create laws, gain favors, and to write policy. People defending Lobbyist, while attempting to point out the so-called "corruption" of these "despachantes" is relatively funny. Seems like these "despachantes" are like Lobbyist for the regular person, who otherwise can't spend the money corporations and special interest groups can afford.

I'm not sure what the U.S. elections have to do with "Despachantes", but here's a little joke with some relevance (probably too close to the truth) that is translated from the Portuguese:

A Brazilian congressman visits the U.S. and is invited to dinner at the home of a U.S. congressman. When he arrives, the Brazilian notes the big home, swimming pool, the Cadillac and the Mercedes in the driveway, and says to the U.S. congressman "Wow - this is really nice! You must get a very good salary!" The U.S. congressman replies "No, it’s not so much." The Brazilian says “Well, how do you do it then?” The American points and says “See that bridge over there?” The Brazilian says “Yes…” The American slaps the pocket containing his wallet and says “Ten percent right here in my pocket!”

The Brazilian thinks about this on his way home. A few years later, the U.S. congressman comes to visit Brazil and is invited to dinner at the Brazilian congressman’s home. When he arrives, the American notes the huge mansion with gardens, the indoor and outdoor swimming pools, the Ferrari and the Rolls Royce in the driveway, and says “Wow this is really nice! You must get a really great salary!” The Brazilian replies “No, it’s not so much.” The American responds “Well, how do you afford all this then?” The Brazilian asks “See that bridge over there?” The American looks all around and doesn’t see any bridge. He says “No… What bridge?” The Brazilian slaps the pocket containing his wallet and says “One hundred percent right here in my pocket!”

In America only a fool would beleive that a contract only takes 10%


In America they charge the government 5 times more the price in the store.. Many cases where found and proabable only 10% of the cases are discoverd

osted on: Saturday, October 28, 2006

Two airport officials convicted

By Ken Kobayashi
Advertiser Courts Writer


Two former state airport officials and two private contractors were convicted yesterday of participating in a scam involving phony bids, kickbacks and inflated contracts for repair jobs at Honolulu International Airport.

Dennis Hirokawa, former airport maintenance superintendent; Richard Okada, former administrator of the airport visitor information program; and private contractors Michael Furukawa and Wesley Uemura showed no emotion as the guilty verdicts were announced in the federal courtroom.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Tong estimated that the two contractors received about $4.8 million for hundreds of jobs that defrauded taxpayers of about $2.5 million from 1997 to mid-2002. In exchange, Hirokawa and Okada received at least $129,000 in kickbacks, Tong said.

The four defendants "caused significant economic damage to the state taxpayers and more importantly, it caused a loss of faith in the integrity of state government," Tong said. "We're very pleased that the jury's verdict will bring some justice to the situation."

Lawrence Goya, senior deputy attorney general who also handled the prosecution, said the verdict sends the message that "public corruption within state government will not be tolerated and will be dealt with sternly when found."

All four defendants were convicted on a conspiracy charge of participating in the fraudulent scheme. In addition, three of them also were convicted on related mail-fraud counts — 18 for Furukawa, 16 for Hirokawa and 14 for Uemura. The conspiracy and mail-fraud convictions each carry up to five years in prison.

Tong said the federal sentencing guidelines will likely recommend prison terms, and he will also recommend that the four spend time behind bars.

U. S. District Judge David Ezra scheduled sentencing for Jan. 15. He permitted each of the men to remain free on bond pending the hearing.

The four men all declined to comment.

"We're disappointed with the verdict," said Dana Ishibashi, Okada's lawyer. "We will be exploring our options in regards to an appeal."

The trial provided a rare insider's view of what prosecutors called a "pay for play" scam created by crooked state officials who received kickbacks that they claimed would be used for the benefit of unnamed politicians.

It involved contractors submitting inflated bids that were awarded to them because they also turned in fake bids on behalf of other contractors asking for higher amounts, prosecutors said.

In exchange, the contractors would give the state officials — Hirokawa and Okada — cash and other benefits, according to the prosecutors.

During the trial, Tong said that in one contract, the state paid $9,670 to repair cracks in a floor that cost only $250 to fix.

The government's case relied on a former state airport official and five other contractors who pleaded guilty to theft in state courts and agreed to testify for the federal prosecution.

Arthur K. Inada, one of the five, told the jury he gave $129,000 in payments ranging from $20 pastry purchases at Dee Lite Bakery to two $20,000 cash payments that Okada claimed were needed for "campaign donations."

No politician's name surfaced during the trial.

Okada and Hirokawa took the witness stand and denied any criminal wrongdoing, while the defense lawyers argued to the jury that the government relied on self-serving witnesses who couldn't be believed and unreliable analysis of the value of the work on the repairs.

They maintained that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

The jury, however, after four weeks of trial, needed only about seven hours Thursday and yesterday to find the defendants guilty on all charges.

Tong said the estimate of more than $2.5 million in losses to the taxpayers was based on an analysis by a prosecution expert who reviewed 171 of the hundreds of jobs awarded to the two defendant contractors. The contracts were all for less than $25,000 and most of them were in the $10,000 range, Tong said.

The expert concluded that the contractors were paid $1.4 million for work that actually cost about $380,000.

The prosecutor said the airport now has new management and personnel. "Hopefully, that will address the problem," Tong said.

He also said he hopes the convictions "will deter any public employee from considering any similar conduct."

Reach Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.

Fraud case enters campaign

In tight race, Scott, Keechl spar over viatical scandal.

By Vanessa Blum
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

October 28, 2006

Less than two weeks before the Nov. 7 election, Broward County Commissioner Jim Scott is attacking challenger Ken Keechl for his legal representation of a company accused of defrauding investors out of nearly $1 billion.

Scott wants voters to know that Keechl, a Democrat making his first run for public office, defended Mutual Benefits Corp. in lawsuits across the country as a partner at Fort Lauderdale law firm Brinkley, McNerney, Morgan, Solomon & Tatum.

Federal prosecutors accuse Mutual Benefits of perpetrating the largest securities fraud in South Florida history. The former president of the Fort Lauderdale-based company, Peter Lombardi, pleaded guilty to securities fraud Oct. 23, dragging the case back into the spotlight.

Scott, a veteran Republican politician who is fighting to keep his 4th District seat, brought up Keechl's connection to the defunct company Thursday at a candidate forum. He held up a copy of a South Florida Sun-Sentinel article about Lombardi's guilty plea naming Keechl's former law firm in connection to the case, according to several people present.

Keechl called the attack "irrelevant" and a "desperate attempt" by Scott to change the subject.

"As a lawyer, I represented hundreds of clients," he said. "What does this have to do with the future of Broward County?"

Judith Stern, a campaign consultant for Scott, said voters should know Keechl's former law firm paid $10 million to settle a class action suit stemming from its representation of Mutual Benefits.

"This guy keeps on attacking Jim's ethics and Jim's integrity and fails to disclose what went on with his own practice of law," Stern said.

So far, the county commission race has focused mainly on taxes and development. Keechl has raised questions about Scott's role redeveloping Fort Lauderdale's last public golf course. Scott is part of a group of investors wanting to build homes on the American Golfers Club.

Scott, a former president of the state Senate, is seeking his second full term on the commission.Keechl's ties to Mutual Benefits could change the dynamics of the tight race for the 4th District seat, which includes areas around Oakland Park and Wilton Manors.

Attorney Reid Cocalis, a registered Democrat and head of the Coral Ridge Homeowner's Association, said he has not decided which candidate to support. The link between Keechl and Mutual Benefits matters because Keechl has bragged about his experience at the law firm, he said.

"You can't have it both ways. You can't say your credentials that make you qualified as a candidate come from managing a law firm and then try to distance yourself when something happens to your firm," Cocalis said. "I think it's a little hypocritical."

Mutual Benefits purchased life insurance policies from elderly and terminally ill people at a discount and sold shares of the anticipated payouts to investors. Such deals, known as viatical and life settlement contracts, become profitable when the insured people die.

At Brinkley McNerney, Mutual Benefits was represented by name partner Michael McNerney, who advised the company on business and regulatory matters.

In the late 1990s, investors began suing Mutual Benefits, claiming their policies were not maturing as quickly as promised. Keechl said he was called on to coordinate the company's legal defense.

Mutual Benefits' position was that the insured people were living longer than predicted because of advances in medicine, he said. In 2004, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil fraud suit against Mutual Benefits, and the company was placed under the control of a court appointed receiver, ending Brinkley McNerney's representation. The SEC alleged that Mutual Benefits deceived investors and made up life expectancies.

Keechl said if his client was engaging in a crime, he never saw evidence of it.

"They were entitled to be represented and they were. That's what lawyers do," he said.

Lawyers representing aggrieved Mutual Benefits investors said Brinkley McNerney partners knew the company made false statements to investors and that executives were secretly pocketing millions of dollars.

In 2005, the law firm's insurers agreed to pay $10 million to Mutual Benefits investors to settle the class action. Keechl was not named in that lawsuit and has not been accused of complicity in Mutual Benefits alleged fraud.

The firm changed its name to Brinkley, Morgan, Solomon, Tatum, Stanley, Lunny & Crosby earlier this year following the departure of McNerney. Keechl left the firm in May to run his campaign.

Miami attorney Michael Tein, who represents Brinkley Morgan, said the decision to settle was made by insurers "as a matter of convenience" and does not mean Keechl or other firm lawyers did anything wrong.

"I think it's irresponsible and reprehensible for Ken's opponents to even suggest he did anything wrong simply because he represented Mutual Benefits," Tein said. "Any line drawing between the firm and the investigation into this former client is absolutely misguided."

Keechl, a graduate of Florida State University law school, joined Brinkley McNerney in 1987 and became partner in 1993.

Jacksonville attorney Henry Coxe III, president of the Florida Bar Association, called it "fundamentally unfair" to attack lawyers who run for office based on their clients.

"Any attorney's obligation is to aggressively represent his or her client," he said. "If the reverse were the case, many, many people and companies would go without counsel, which isn't the way our system is organized."

Not everyone agrees. Samuel Popkin, a political science professor at the University of California, San Diego, said the issue is relevant and raises questions about Keechl's judgment.

"Either he didn't know what his client was up to or he didn't care," Popkin said. "I don't know which is worse."

Vanessa Blum can be reached at vbblum@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4605.

Report alleges trickery in Iraq contracts

Click here to find out more!
Associated Press

October 28, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The Halliburton subsidiary that provides food, shelter and other logistics to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan exploited federal regulations to hide details on its contract performance, according to a report released yesterday.

The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction found that Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown & Root Services routinely marked all information it gave to the government as proprietary, whether it was or not.

The government promises not to disclose proprietary data so that a company's most valuable information will not be divulged to its competitors.

By marking all information proprietary - including such normally releasable data as labor rates - the company abused federal regulations, the report says.

Other audits
The Iraq reconstruction audits have routinely found significant problems with contracting and rebuilding in the country, including high costs for security and overhead, alleged fraud and lack of oversight.

Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, chairman of the Democratic Policy Committee, said that during 13 oversight hearings on the war in Iraq, the committee found more than $1 billion in waste, fraud, abuse and what it called "shoddy work" by contractors.

In effect, Kellogg, Brown & Root turned the regulations "into a mechanism to prevent the government from releasing normally transparent information, thus potentially hindering competition and oversight."

Company replies
Halliburton spokeswoman Cathy Mann said that since the current contract is being reviewed and might be divided among several contractors, "it is clearly appropriate to mark data as proprietary that could potentially be used for competitive purposes," as would be the case in any new contract.

She said such proprietary markings have been used on a majority of the data for at least the past decade, and the company will work with the military on matters outlined in the interim report as the final audit is completed.

"I'm convinced that this is the most significant waste, fraud and abuse in the history of this country," Dorgan said.

If the Democrats take control of the Senate, he said, they will launch oversight hearings on war matters such as faulty intelligence leading up to the war and wrongdoing by contractors.

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Amerigroup seeks to suppress papers in fraud trial
By TOM SHEAN, The Virginian-Pilot
© October 24, 2006
Last updated: 10:09 PM

The trial of Amerigroup Corp. on fraud charges entered its fourth week Monday as the Virginia Beach-based company sought to counter allegations that its Chicago-area health plan discriminated against pregnant women.

Amerigroup, which contracts with states to provide managed care to recipients of Medicaid and other government programs, is expected to wrap up its defense in U.S. District Court in Chicago later this week. The case could go to the jury early next week.

The civil suit contends that Amerigroup defrauded the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services by restricting women with advanced pregnancies from enrolling in its Cook County plan. Reducing the number of participants with higher risks enabled Amerigroup to hold on to more of the Medicaid payments received from the state, the plaintiffs allege.

Cleveland Tyson, a former Amerigroup employee in Chicago, filed the civil fraud suit in 2002. The Illinois attorney general and the Justice Department later joined him as plaintiffs.

While rebutting allegations that it defrauded the Illinois Medicaid program, Amerigroup on Monday sought to bar the introduction of documents dealing with its departure from the state in July. In a filing with the court, Amerigroup contended that the documents related to its contract negotiations would mislead the jury into thinking that the company was forced to withdraw from Illinois because of improper conduct.

Those inferences would be wrong, and use of the documents would be unfairly prejudicial to its case, Amerigroup argued in its filing. Earlier, the documents were barred from the trial.

However, the plaintiffs, including the attorney general of Illinois and the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, have asked the court to use the materials because of the way that Amerigroup has portrayed its relationship with the state’s Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

Amerigroup said earlier this year that it decided not to renew its contract in Illinois because of continued cuts in funds to Medicaid managed-care programs. The company, whose health care plans in eight other states and the District of Columbia have more than 1.1 million members, stopped doing business in Illinois on July 31.

Amerigroup had begun serving Medicaid recipients in the Chicago area in 1996 and had 41,000 members there at the end of 2005.

Amerigroup and its attorneys have reiterated that the company discouraged women with advanced pregnancies from signing up for its Cook County health plan because they would have to switch physicians.

Amerigroup said it kept the state agency fully informed about its efforts to hold down the enrollment of pregnant women. The Department of Healthcare and Family Services, the company said, never sanctioned Amerigroup for these restrictions and continued to make contracts available to the company.

Documents that Amerigroup wants to keep barred from the jury include correspondence indicating a growing tension between the company and the Illinois agency during their negotiations over a new Medicaid contract.

The state’s revised application form asked if a managed-care provider, its parent or an affiliate had been a party to litigation involving allegations of fraud or false claims relating to Illinois. A “Yes” answer, the form said, may bar an applicant from continued participation in the state program.

Amerigroup countered that the provision improperly singled it out and could have barred it from doing business in Illinois.

In a heated letter on June 23 to the health care agency, an attorney for Amerigroup criticized the question as “legally groundless and impermissible.” And “accordingly, we demand that Healthcare and Family Services rescind this requirement,” the attorney, Daniel J. Voelker, wrote.

The agency’s application form, Voelker said, “clearly demonstrates that HFS is an active partisan in the Tyson litigation and is using its regulatory power in an attempt to compel settlement of the Tyson litigation on a favorable basis to the state.”

To make their case against Amerigroup, the plaintiffs must prove that Amerigroup intentionally filed false claims for payment and received the money.

However, the stakes for Amerigroup could be significant. The suit was brought under the federal False Claims Act and Illinois Whistleblower Reward and Protection Act, which allow damages to be tripled if a defendant loses. The False Claims Act and its Illinois counterpart also enable a whistleblower to share in the damages collected.

The plaintiffs in this case did not specify an amount that they would seek from Amerigroup.

Amerigroup’s stock price appears unaffected by the trial. Its shares closed Monday at $31.81, up 46 cents. That’s down slightly from its 52-week high of $32.63 in July.

# Reach Tom Shean at (757) 446-2379 or tom.shean@pilotonline.com.

Ex-executive admits cheating millions in securities fraud

By Vanessa Blum
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

October 24, 2006

The former president of a defunct Fort Lauderdale firm stood before a federal judge Monday and admitted to defrauding investors out of almost $1 billion in what prosecutors called the region's largest securities fraud.

Peter Lombardi, 56, who ran Mutual Benefits with brothers Joel and Leslie Steinger, was charged Oct. 17 in the first criminal case to result from a lengthy government investigation. He remained stoic as he entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Paul Huck in federal court in Miami. The company, shut down in 2004, purchased life insurance policies from terminally ill and elderly people for less than face value and sold shares of the anticipated payouts to investors around the world.

Such deals, known as viaticals and life settlement contracts, become profitable if the insured individual dies within a particular period of time. Prosecutors contend that Lombardi and his accomplices cheated the firm's almost 30 million investors by using false projections of how long the insured people would live.

Investors were promised returns of up to 72 percent, said U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta. In reality, many life expectancy estimates turned out to be too low, and thousands of people lost their life savings, he said.

FBI Special Agent Jonathan Solomon said the company's leaders made investors "feel selfish" when they asked why their investments had not matured. "Investors were hard pressed to complain to MBC that policy holders had not died," said Solomon, who heads the FBI Miami office. Lombardi faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and fines of up to $5 million. He has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a civil fraud suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2004 and additional suits brought on behalf of investors. Lombardi's sentencing is set for Jan. 3.

Attorney Jon May, who represents Lombardi, said his client is trying to make amends and is cooperating fully with prosecutors in their ongoing investigation.

According to prosecutors, Lombardi helped create Mutual Benefits and served as nominal head of the business to hide the criminal backgrounds of others involved in the company.

As president, Lombardi told investors the firm had a strong track record of accurately predicting life expectancies and led investors to wrongly believe that their investment had a low level of risk similar to a certificate of deposit, or CD, prosecutors said.

Lead prosecutor Andrew Levy said the firm's business model amounted to a massive Ponzi scheme, in which new investors' funds were secretly used to pay the premiums on old insurance policies.

"In reality, most investors never realized any profit and have not been able to get their investments back," Levy said.

The SEC sued Lombardi and the Steingers in 2004, following a raid on the company's Fort Lauderdale offices.

A Despachante in Brazil is just a small fish compare with the big fishes in america

A least in Brazil the small guy has some chance of beating the corrupt system with the Descpachantes.

In America de "Despachantes" are only for the super rich

I'd like to point out that the joke that I posted above is a Brazilian joke, as told between Brazilians, and translated from the portuguese.

Nobody said that the U.S. is clean of corruption - but if you look at the international ratings, the U.S. is nowhere near the top of the list.

International Ratings are just a big a joke

Maybe the Brazilians that you know have no idea about real life in the other countries.

They get most of the information about other countries from low Level Magazine in Brazil.


I'm sure is not your fault.

IN THE OTHER HAND YOU HAVE TO AGREE WITH ME THAT THE PROPAGANDA WORKS. SOMEONE IN BRAZIL TOLD A "JOKE" AND THE IDEA IS GOING AROUND THE WORLD AS BEEN TRUE.

AGAIN, IS JUST PROPAGANDDA- in BRAZIL JOKES ARE WAY OF SEND PROPAGANDA TO THE PEOPLE.

DO NOT GET SUCK IN.

International Ratings are just a big a joke

They just want to sell a clean image of the "First World"

Basic 101 Propaganda.

Like i said before, most a corruption in the first world is not uncovered. Maybe only 10%


if they do, most first world countries would be in the top of the list.

I just gave you same example.

In America we don't have the low grade magazine name VJEA and ISTO E that goes around the country looking for every single case of corruption.




I CAN MAKE A "VEJA AMERICAN VERSION” EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK IF START LOOKING FOR CORRUPTION IN AMERICA

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

Very true

Wake-up America