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Feds delve deeper into John Murtha kickback scheme
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AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
Eight times this year Republicans forced votes on a resolution demanding an ethics investigation of lawmakers.
Democrats defeated the resolutions initially, but Republicans began picking up more votes each time, many from first and second-term Democrats who barely squeezed by in their general elections and did so campaigning off ethics issues.
When the resolutions were first brought forward a month ago, Pelosi tried to blunt the Republican offensive by arranging a lecture to party members by the former top Democrat on the House ethics committee, Rep. Howard Berman of California.
Berman told Democratic colleagues in a closed meeting that there's a right and wrong way to start an ethics investigation. The wrong way was let the minority party initiate one.
Now Murtha, chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee and one of Nancy Pelosi’s mentors, is at the center of one himself.
According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
A former executive for a defense contractor with ties to Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha has been charged by federal prosecutors with taking about $200,000 in kickbacks from a subcontractor.
Richard Ianieri, of Doylestown, Pa., served as president and CEO of Coherent Systems International Corp., the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
The government alleges Ianieri received checks which were “provided for the purpose of improperly obtaining and rewarding favorable treatment … relating to a government prime contract.”
Coherent was working so closely with Kuchera Industries that three years ago Murtha himself bragged that the companies practically were operating as one entity.
AP states Ianieri was charged via federal criminal information, which typically indicates that a defendant is cooperating with prosecutors.
In Janurary, FBI raids were conducted on the headquarters and the homes of its top two executives. Kuchera, who is an Murtha supporter, was suspended from its Navy contracts in April for 'alleged fraud,' including 'multiple incidents' of incorrect charging, Navy officials said, along with allegations of defective pricing and ethical violations."
Federal investigators are currently looking into Murtha’s earmarks and the connection from the money allotted to those companies, and the campaign contributions that he received in return.
Murtha is considered one of the '20 most corrupt members of Congress' by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
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