Has the jury considered...
That maybe those bathrooms have that nasty, scratchy bus station TP, and Mr. Dodd wanted something a little softer?
The boss of an IT services provider bribed a top Detroit city official to win lucrative contracts for his biz, prosecutors in the US have claimed. Parimal "Perry" Mehta, 54, of Northville, Michigan, was charged this week with eleven counts including bribery and wire fraud for a series of payments he was said to have made to …
This post has been deleted by its author
Wouldn't taking a client out to dinner or other entertainment be a legitimate and deductible business expense? Whether the civic official was allowed to accept it would still be in question. It was the cashness of the payment that made it a no-no. And at less than one-half of one percent, a bargain. Or am I showing up myself as an ingenue in the World of Graft (American meaning)? Suggests a title for a video game, MeinGraft.
Other bribery scandals involving anything but IT:
- City/county towing contracts, affecting Detroit and the next county to the north, Macomb.
- City/township trash hauling contracts, involving many communities in Macomb County, and resulting in the heads of a family-named "environmental services" company to resign, just after ALSO selling their company to a Canadian firm. (Said firm quickly decided to change the name and logo to their own, adding overlays to or repainting the whole fleet of trucks.)
We're just a whole region full of corruption, aren't we? Making Kwame Kilpatrick proud (look it up!).
This post has been deleted by its author
Got a close relative who works 'high-up' for the City of San Diego, Cali. They just began implementing an Accela software platform in a similar dept to the one in Detroit. A platform was originally being developed in house then word came down from above that they had signed a 'Big Money' contract to implement Accela. Word on the street is that a top man in IT quit shortly after the contract was signed. Then implementation ran into serious delays. Apparently integration isn't always as smooth as the sales people say it will be, or does the program necessarily do all the things it was supposed to. Not that things ever really run smooth in bureaucratic municipalities, but now, after this article I'm can't help but wonder who picks this software? and Why?
Not that you Brits keep track but San Diego has a long history of the city making really terrible financial decisions. Mayoral candidates taking bribes, huge unfunded pension deficits, terrible contracts with sports teams(chargers), among countless other.
but...the weather is amazing
Excellent turn of phrase. Could also try "achieve better market penetration"; "Detroit's up and coming politician"; "greasing a govt official"; "after a wet, stiff drink..." Too easy.
Seriously though- this is Detroit. Where the weak are killed and eaten. If this is the most significant crime that took place on that day I'll eat my hat...