Tag: Bribery

* Kari Lake Holds Press Conference Discussing Newly Resigned AZGOP Chair’s Financial Offer to Get Her Out of Politics

Rachel Alexander

Kari Lake held a press conference on Rumble Wednesday evening to discuss revelations from a newly released recording of a conversation last March between herself and former Arizona Republican Party Chair Jeff DeWit, who was forced to resign after it came out. In the recording, DeWit is heard attempting to convince Lake to drop out of politics for a couple of years in exchange for a well-paying job, prompting an outcry that forced his resignation on Tuesday. Lake fielded questions from both reporters and other viewers during her talk, which lasted around half an hour.

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Former Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Indicted on Federal Bribery, Embezzlement Crimes

Kaitlin Housler

A federal grand jury has charged the former chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), Samuel Randazzo, 74, with crimes related to bribery and embezzlement, according to the Southern District of Ohio U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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Federal Prosecutors in Menendez Bribery Case Say Found Gold Bars, Hidden Cash in Senator’s Home

Just the News

Prosecutors said Friday morning they have indicted New Jersey Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife on federal bribery charges.

They alleged in a press conference shortly after the charges were announced the Menendezs took bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car for corrupt acts, including having the senator, who leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, use his influence to benefit the authoritarian government of Egypt.

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Ramaswamy: Plea Deal Keeping Hunter Biden out of Prison Is a ‘Joke,’ the ‘Perfect Fig Leaf’

M.D. Kittle

GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is blasting a plea deal announced Tuesday that will keep President Joe Biden’s troubled son out of prison on two federal misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his taxes and a separate felony charge of possession of a firearm by a known drug user.

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Ohio Democrats Seek Preservation of Records in Connection with FirstEnergy

Bradley Vasoli

Ohio Democratic Party (ODP) Chairwoman Elizabeth Walters last week filed a preliminary injunction seeking assurance that Gov. Mike DeWine (R) will preserve all records pertaining to House Bill 6 as an ODP lawsuit goes forward.

The legislation, which DeWine signed into law in July 2019, created a $1.3 billion bailout for the Perry and Davis-Besse nuclear-power plants operated by FirstEnergy Corp. Federal prosecutors have alleged that GOP former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and numerous other individuals, including erstwhile Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges, participated in a $61 million bribery scheme to effect the subsidies.

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Commentary: Democrats’ 2020 Tactics in Philadelphia Part of a Failing Attempt to Keep Control

Ohio Star Staff
Mail in ballot with U.S. flag

Pennsylvania was by far one of the most contentious battleground states in the 2020 election, but new analysis shows even in Philadelphia Democrats are only treading water.

In 2020, both Democrat and anti-Trump groups dumped millions into Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs, with roving food vans that would extract votes out of people in exchange for a meal, or the use of “street money” to incentivize election-day door knockers to push people to the polls.

Despite these borderline-bribery efforts to drag people out to vote against Trump in 2020, Democrats gained less than 20,000 votes in Philly compared to 2016 numbers.

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Documents from FBI Investigation Include Name of Dayton Mayor; She Was Cleared

Peter D'Abrosca
Mayor Nan Whaley

The Democrat Mayor of Dayton, also a gubernatorial candidate, was implicated in a bribery scheme for which four people went to jail, all stemming from an FBI investigation in 2013-2014. 

“In the documents, the agents told the judge that a controller for demolition company Steve Rauch Inc. — which pleaded guilty last year to a charge of conspiracy to engage in mail fraud regarding subcontracting work — said in recorded phone calls with another company official that Whaley accepted cash bribes from Rauch on multiple occasions,” according to a report in The Ohio Capital Journal. 

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Commentary: Vaccine Mandates and Bribery Are Headed for K-12 Schools

Ohio Star Staff
Young girl getting COVID vaccination

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, more than 680 U.S. public and private colleges require students to get a coronavirus vaccine. This is a non-negotiable mandate for students to maintain enrollment status.

The vaccination edicts come even as the coronavirus has an extremely low mortality rate among college-aged students — CDC data attributes only 2.8 percent of coronavirus deaths to those under age 45. Regardless of this reality, those favoring mandated vaccines argue that schools already require students to provide proof of other vaccinations.

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Pension Bailout Agency Flagged for Contract Bribery, Fraud and Payments to Dead Americans

Ohio Star Staff
American flag with handcuffs and $100 bills

This week’s Golden Horseshoe award goes to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the nation’s pension bailout agency that is still reeling from revelations its chief of contracting engaged in a bribery scheme that steered $4.8 million in fraudulent business to a vendor in return for more than $1 million in personal benefits.

The bribery scheme involving the now convicted director of PBGC’s Procurement Department was possible because the agency suffered from several vulnerabilities, including reduced competition among vendors, missing legal reviews and sole-source contracts that evaded bidding designed to get taxpayers the best bargain, the PBGC’s inspector general reported.

“His actions were enabled by internal control weaknesses; specifically, inadequate oversight of PD procurements and a lack of a control mechanism to ensure that PD sent all requisite contract actions for legal review,” the inspector general reported. “Although PBGC began requiring that more contract actions receive legal review after the PD Director resigned in February 2020, it does not have a mechanism to ensure PD complies with this requirement.”

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Another Guilty Plea Entered in Ohio House Bill 6 Corruption Scandal

The Center Square

A nonprofit organization has become the latest to enter a guilty plea in a $60 million bribery and racketeering scheme involving Ohio’s taxpayer-funded energy company bailout and the former speaker of the House.

Generation Now pleaded guilty in federal court, admitting it was used to funnel millions of dollars in bribes from a utility company to former Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, in relation to the passage of House Bill 6. In the plea agreement, Generation Now allowed the government to take nearly $1.5 million from two bank accounts and received five years of probation.

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Conservative Organizations Call For Next Ohio House Speaker to Have Character, Be Supporter of Faith and Family

Jason M. Reynolds

Even as the Ohio House of Representatives looks to replace disgraced Speaker Larry Householder, a coalition of conservative organizations is urging lawmakers to be thoughtful in how they do so.

Householder and four others were arrested July 21 in connection with a $60 million federal bribery probe in connection with the Legislature’s 2019 bailout of FirstEnergy and its nuclear power plants.

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Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, Four Others Arrested in $60 Million Bribery Case

The Associated Press

Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four others were arrested Tuesday in a $60 million federal bribery probe, a person briefed on the investigation confirmed.

U.S. Attorney David DeVillers’ office would not discuss details of the case, which it planned to outline at a briefing later Tuesday.

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Commentary: ‘Abuse of Power’ and ‘Obstruction of Congress’ Are Not High Crimes or Misdemeanors, Bribery or Treason

Ohio Star Staff

“The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

That is Article II, Section 4 of the Federal Constitution, outlining what a case for impeachment is supposed to consist of, namely, crimes. Therefore, without a crime there cannot be an impeachment.

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Commentary: The Bribery Bait-and-Switch, Explained

Ohio Star Staff

The president’s enemies remain unable to find any “smoking gun” – any clear, irrefutable and publicly compelling proof of “Treason, Bribery [or] other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Ordinary, decent folk in search of actual crimes, having not found any, would have backed off long ago. But our Javert-Democrats are having none of that. Well aware that the public wasn’t buying the product they’re selling, they’ve kept the product – there’s nothing wrong with New Coke! – and changed the marketing.

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Michigan State Rep Larry Inman Charged with Bribery Is Seeking Treatment for Opioid Use

Ohio Star Staff

by Tyler Arnold   Michigan state Rep. Larry Inman, R-Traverse City, is seeking treatment for opioid use after being indicted on bribery charges. His attorney, Christopher Cooke, said that Inman sought treatment last week and had been using the drugs for several years after he was prescribed the medicine following major…

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