Eideard

The government of the Indian capital, Delhi, has been paying salaries to 22,853 civic workers who do not exist.

Salaries for the missing Municipal Corporation of Delhi workers add up to nearly $43m a year, City Mayor Kanwar Sain said in a statement.

The “gap” was discovered after the authorities introduced a biometric system of recording attendance.

Correspondents say it shows some civic officials created a list of “ghost workers” to siphon off state funds…

It was long suspected that the city was being defrauded by “ghost workers“, but the authorities had always denied the charge.

Har! Anyone over there learn how to manage the graveyard vote, as well?

War-torn nations remain the world’s most corrupt, Transparency International (TI) has said.

Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia are the lowest-ranked countries in TI’s annual global survey. They were all at the bottom of the list last year as well. “When essential institutions are weak or non-existent, corruption spirals out of control,” TI said.

New Zealand was the least corrupt, with last year’s winner Denmark as runner-up and Singapore third. It said this was a result of “political stability, long established conflict of interest regulations and solid, functioning public institutions”…

The UK ranked 17th, down one place from last year. The US also fell one place to 19th.

The last-named two are still engrossed in the discovery phase of corruption under Bush and Blair.

In a video report shot in Lahore, Adam Ellick asks a few of Pakistan’s top musicians why they have spoken out against corruption, political wheeling-dealings, poverty and the manner in which the country has been done in by everyone from the politicians to the West to India – but never against the Taliban, who currently constitute the clearest and most present of dangers.

Here, verbatim, is what Ali Noor of Noori has to say:

‘We are not going to get up and say that we want to talk against the Taliban – simply because they are probably one of the smallest problems this country has. [...] It’s the West. It’s the West that is against the Taliban, because they are very heavily affected by it. We’re not.’

And here is what Ali Azmat – the man who once sang about ‘zehni ghulami’ – has to say: ‘We know for a fact that all this turbulence in Pakistan … it’s not us. It’s the outside hands.’

What, really, can one say? The Taliban are one of the smallest problems this country has? When we’re having a bombing virtually every day, when parts of the south-west of the country were until very recently in serious danger of falling to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and its associated gang of goons?

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In documents filed this week in Alaska’s long-running political corruption investigation, the government’s lead witness said he had given thousands of dollars in gifts to “United States Representative A” — who could only be Republican Rep. Don Young.

Alaska, uh, only has one Congressional representative.

Bill Allen, a former oil services company executive, said he paid $10,000 to $15,000 a year from 1993 to 2006 out of VECO Corp.’s funds for the representative’s annual fundraiser in Alaska. The lawmaker, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, did not list any such payments on financial disclosure forms…

Testimony and evidence provided by Allen, who is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday on his 2007 guilty pleas to conspiracy, bribery and tax charges, has helped convict several Alaska state legislators and former Gov. Frank Murkowski’s chief of staff on corruption charges stemming from influence VECO wielded over pending legislation on oil taxes and other matters affecting the industry…

Young, 76, has never been directly identified by federal officials as a target of the probe, and he consistently has refused to publicly answer questions about it. His spokeswoman, Meredith Kenny, declined to comment, and Young’s lawyer did not return a phone call.

Young — Alaska’s only member of the House of Representatives — waved off a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News, which initially reported the new court filing. “Don’t bother me,” he said…

The House last year directed the Justice Department to look into a controversial earmark Young had attached to a 2005 highway bill, steering $10 million to study building an interchange of Interstate 75 in Florida near land owned by a major campaign donor and fundraiser for Young.

What? You thought corrupt politicians limited their crooked dealings just to their home states?

A federal judge in New York has rejected a $33 million settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of America, throwing into doubt the future of one of the government’s chief cases against a firm charged with wrongdoing in the financial crisis.

Using biting language, Judge Jed S. Rakoff accused the SEC, Wall Street’s top regulator, of trying to nab a quick victory against a big bank while concealing the true facts of the wrongdoing the agency alleges. He attacked Bank of America’s top executives for allegedly trying to protect themselves at the expense of the company’s shareholders. Most of all, Rakoff suggested that the SEC and Bank of America are working together to try to make the case go away even if it “victimizes” the shareholders who would be responsible for paying the $33 million settlement.

“This case suggests a rather cynical relationship between the parties: the S.E.C. gets to claim that it is exposing wrongdoing on the part of the Bank of America in a high-profile merger; the Bank’s management gets to claim that they have been coerced into an onerous settlement by overzealous regulators,” Rakoff wrote. “And all this is done at the expense, not only of the shareholders, but also of the truth…”

“It is not fair, first and foremost, because it does not comport with the most elementary notions of justice and morality, in that it proposes that the shareholders who were the victims of the Bank’s alleged misconduct now pay the penalty for that misconduct,” Rakoff wrote.

Does anyone think they can find an honest person in the offices of the SEC? Especially among the leftovers from the days of Bush and Paulson? Obama may think the pattycake slaps he’s administered have been sufficient to restart responsible oversight. I sincerely doubt it.

We have one set of Wall Street lawyers negotiating with another set of Wall Street lawyers over the best way to cut their losses and have the shareholders pick up the tab. That’s not responsible behavior in my neck of the prairie.

Chen supporter attacks Reuters photographer outside court
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Former Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian was convicted Friday on corruption and money laundering charges, and was sentenced to life in prison, according to officials at Taipei City Court.

He was fined $6.1 million as well.

Chen’s wife, Wu Shu-chen, who earlier had been convicted of lying to prosecutors, also was convicted on similar charges. She received a life sentence and was fined U.S. $9.1 million…

The former president’s corruption trial began in March. It is the first for a former head of state, and has gripped the island for months. He has denied wrongdoing and has said the charges are politically motivated.

Sounds like Dick Cheney is writing his copy.

Prosecutors say Chen embezzled $17.7 million, took bribes, laundered money and illegally removed classified documents from the president’s office.

Chen has countered that the bribe money was actually political donations. He has also said that a special presidential fund from which he is accused of embezzling does not clearly say what the money can and cannot be used for.

Oh. Well I guess that explains it all. To the supporters of his political party, anyway.

Looks like the courts accept a different analysis.

So, you left the envelope under the pillow?

The former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been indicted in three corruption cases, the attorney general’s office says.

The series of probes was a key factor in Mr Olmert’s resignation last year. The charges relate to the periods when Mr Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem and a cabinet minister, but before he became prime minister in 2006…

The office of Attorney General Menahem Mazuz confirmed in a statement he had decided to press charges and that the charge sheet had been presented on Sunday in Jerusalem district court…

Israelis are split over what this episode tells them about their politicians. Many believe that the political class is the lousiest in Israel’s short history.

Mr Olmert is the first former prime minister in Israeli history to face criminal charges, the office said.

I hope we catch up, soon.

One of the charges against Mr Olmert is that he accepted cash envelopes from US businessman Morris Talansky with sums amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Mr Olmert admits taking money, but insists the funds were legal donations to help his campaigns for re-election as mayor of Jerusalem and for the leadership of the Likud, his former party.

In the second case, Mr Olmert is accused of duplicating funding for his trips abroad. Police have said they suspect the “considerable sums” that remained after the travel expenses were paid for were transferred by Mr Olmert to a special account his travel agency administered for him.

The third case involves alleged conflict of interest. Officials have alleged Mr Olmert arranged investment opportunities for a friend, Uri Messner, while he was industry minister.

The sort of ally the United States has loved over our years of interfering with the Middle East.

China executed the former chairman of a huge state-owned airport holding company on Friday, six months after he was convicted on bribery and embezzlement charges involving more than $14.6 million.

The executive, Li Peiying, had been the chairman and general manager of Capital Airports Holding Company, a conglomerate that runs 30 airports in 9 Chinese provinces, including Beijing’s much-acclaimed new international airport.

China’s state-run news agency, Xinhua, said that Mr. Li, 60, was executed in Jinan, a Yellow River city in Shandong Province. The province’s Higher People’s Court rejected an appeal in July.

The execution underscored the gravity of the national government’s campaign against official corruption, which President Hu Jintao has labeled a serious threat to stability. The Communist Party announced this week that it was investigating a member of its ruling authority, the party’s Central Committee, apparently for corruption in the nation’s nuclear industry. News reports stated that that official, Kang Rixin, was suspected of embezzlement and bidding irregularities related to the construction of nuclear power plants…

At his peak, Mr. Li, the airport executive, supervised a 38,000-employee behemoth that not only served 30 percent of the nation’s air passenger traffic, but also began forays into insurance, hotels, real estate and tourism.

Will someone please forward this to Bernie Madoff and his other Wall Street buddies! It sounds like a policy we might consider adopting.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

As a New York money manager and investment banker at four Wall Street firms, Charles E. F. Millard never reached superstar status. But he was treated like one when he arrived in Washington in May 2007, to run the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the federal agency that oversees $50 billion in retirement funds.

BlackRock, one of the world’s largest money-management firms, assigned a high school classmate of Mr. Millard’s to stay in close contact with him, and it made sure to place him next to its legendary founder, Laurence D. Fink, at a charity dinner at Chelsea Piers. A top executive at Goldman Sachs frequently called and sent e-mail messages, inviting Mr. Millard out to the Mandarin Oriental and the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, even helping him hunt for his next Wall Street job.

Both firms were hoping to win contracts to manage a chunk of that $50 billion. The extensive wooing paid off when a selection committee of three, including Mr. Millard, picked BlackRock and Goldman from among 16 bidders to manage nearly $1.6 billion and to advise the agency, which Mr. Millard ran until January.

This expanded into a choreographed ballet of meetings, consultations, cabals and love fests.

But on July 20, the agency permanently revoked the contracts with BlackRock, Goldman and JPMorgan Chase, the third winner, nullifying the process. The decision was based on questions surrounding Mr. Millard’s actions during the formal bidding process. His actions have also drawn the scrutiny of Congressional investigators and the agency’s inspector general…

“Both sides should have known better,” said Steven L. Schooner…who reviewed some of the material for The Times. “What happened here is wrong, stupid and probably illegal…”

Instead of digesting, editing and offering up a kernel of analysis, let me just say this is a cautionary tale of cronyism. Business as usual taken to the sort of country club courting and decision-making you would expect from either the Oil Patch Boys in charge of the White House or the visiting con artists from Wall Street.

If you are testifying before Congress and you wish to “take the 5th” even once during the questioning – you must do so as an answer to every question other than identifying who you are. Stupid – but, that’s what we have lawyers for. To make us stupid.

Raw footage of perps brought in for booking in Newark

The FBI this morning made dozens of arrests in a money laundering and corruption probe. Those arrested include 9th District Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, R-Ocean, and some unidentified rabbis from Brooklyn, Deal and the Elberon section of Long Branch, sources said.

Van Pelt, 45, was elected to the state Assembly in November 2007 and started serving in January 2008. He also was mayor of Waretown from 1998 until last year…

Also arrested were Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, Secaucus Mayor Denis Elwell, Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Baldini, Jersey City Council President Mario Vega and other officials from Hudson County, sources said.

The probe also involves international trafficking in body parts, sources said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says approximately 30 arrests have occurred in the two-track investigation.

FBI spokeswoman Myrna Williams tells The Associated Press the arrests will go on until noon. A news conference is scheduled for noon at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark.

I’ll update this story after the news conference. Some of this is almost too outlandish to comprehend. The powerful and politically-connected always think they’re above the law, don’t they?