Northwest Indiana Discussion

Court enters judgment in East Chicago racketeering suit
State’s claims of liability acknowledged in Pastrick, Fife default

INDIANAPOLIS – In a first-in-the-nation legal development, a federal judge Monday signed a judgment finding former East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick operated the city government as a corrupt enterprise under federal and state racketeering laws.

The judgment comes after Pastrick and ex-mayoral aide James H. Fife III opted to not proceed to trial in the State’s lawsuit and legally acknowledged their liability on every racketeering claim the State brought. U.S. District Court Judge James Moody made formal findings Monday that the allegations in the State’s complaint are deemed true by virtue of the default by Pastrick and Fife, and so the state is entitled to relief.

“This is historic. Never before has a city government been adjudged a corrupt organization under RICO statute, according to our research,” Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said.

Next, the court will hear testimony June 9 on how much Pastrick and Fife must pay in damages in the $24 million fraud. The Office of the Indiana Attorney General will propose to the court additional legal remedies to restore public trust in East Chicago city government.

“This case is about more than just collecting monetary damages that may or may not be paid. It is about rehabilitating the city government of East Chicago of the historic legacy of corruption from the Pastrick era,” Zoeller said.

The first-of-its-kind lawsuit, filed under the federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations or RICO statute, named the city government of East Chicago itself as a corrupt enterprise.

East Chicago is a cancer that has spread throughout Lake County.

It's pay-to-play politics saturate the Lake County Democratic Party
and corrupt everyone it touches.

East Chicago is not merely corrupt, it is a corrupting force to all of Lake County as its pay-to-play politics are spread to South Lake County by East Chicago politicians.

The pay-to-play politics of Pastrick, Frankie Kolintzas, and Visclosky must be vigorously rejected.

It can't be repeated often enough. The faces of LC residents must be rubbed in it over and over and over again. Too great a portion of the electorate prefers to wink at the corruption and tolerate it all as a nostalgic relic--its what puts 'da Region on the map after all. The Pastricks, Manouses, Kolintzases, Viscloskys, "Stigs", Fifes' et al are not viewed as charming rogues by anybody outside of Lake County. That's a local perspective.

Then the faithful wonder why the only businesses that can be attracted to LC are restaurant and retail operations. You really think a Microsoft or a FedEx would ever consider locating their headquarters there, knowing full well they are exposing themselves to political shakedown and a Grade Z workforce?

Pelosi's Pork Problem The PMA scandal could make Abramoff look like a piker.

By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL (Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2009)

Picture a freight train roaring down the tracks. Picture House Speaker Nancy Pelosi positioning her party on the rails. Picture a growing stream of nervous souls diving for the weeds. Picture all this, and you've got a sense of the Democrats' earmark-corruption problem.

This particular choo-choo has the name John Murtha emblazoned on the side, and with each chug is proving that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Republicans got tossed in 2006 in part for failing to police the earmarks at the center of the Jack Abramoff and other corruption scandals. Mrs. Pelosi is today leaving her members exposed to an earmark mess that might make Abramoff look junior varsity.

Federal investigators are deep into a criminal investigation of PMA Group, a now-defunct lobby shop founded by a former aide to Mr. Murtha, Pennsylvania's 18-term star appropriator. The suspicion is that some members of Congress may have peddled lucrative earmarks to PMA clients in exchange for campaign contributions. To get a sense of this probe's scope, consider that last year alone more than 100 members secured earmarks for PMA clients.

Mr. Murtha, who in the past two years alone directed $78 million to PMA companies, has so far not been accused of wrongdoing and has proclaimed his innocence. The feds, for their part, are picking up speed. Federal agents have raided PMA, as well as a defense contractor to which Mr. Murtha had directed earmarks, Kuchera Defense Systems. By last week, Mr. Murtha's fellow defense appropriator and PMA-earmarker, Indiana Rep. Peter Visclosky, had disclosed he'd received subpoenas in connection with PMA, while the Navy said it had suspended Kuchera from doing business with it because of "alleged fraud."

duh...

I certainly hope AG Greg Zoeller is able to get the Second Century books opened so we can all see where this money has gone. Of course, then again, there could be 2 sets of books. Cappas and Pappas should be investigated.