More DC government corruption
Photo from Washington Examiner
This time corrupt workers in the Washington, DC government have committed a crime which may affect the entire country (Washington Examiner link);
Law enforcement officers raided the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles branch in Georgetown on Wednesday, arresting one city employee and four other suspects on charges they set up a scheme to sell fake District driver’s licenses.
Authorities would not identify the suspects late Wednesday as the investigation continued, although they said some of those arrested were non-U.S. citizens.
The probe began about a year ago after a DMV internal investigator working on a case outside D.C. noticed irregularities in records from the Georgetown service center, department director Lucinda Babers said.
The agency informed the D.C. Office of the Attorney General, which then contacted the FBI. Babers was informed of the investigation about three months ago, she said.
Babers did not know how many fraudulent driver’s licenses were sold out of the satellite service center, located at the bottom floor of the Georgetown Mall.
Knowing that fraudulent drivers’ licenses from across the river in Alexandria were used by 9-11 hijackers, and the DC government not knowing how many fake licenses were sold indicates that this could have wide-ranging implications. Of course, his lordship, Mayor fenty doesn’t think he has corruption in his administration;
He deflected questions about whether the arrests were a further indication of widespread corruption among city employees. Instead, he said they were a sign that security safeguards were working.
Someone has been selling illegal licenses for more than a year, and just as in the Harriet Walters case (when a bank notified the Feds and then the Feds notified the DC government after more than $20 million went missing from City coffers), the Feds had to tell DC government nine months into their investigation that something was amiss – what safeguards, Mayor Fenty? You have no safeguards if the Feds have to tell you about the criminals in your government.
But probably most stunning was department director Lucinda Babers’ statement;
“Everything we do has a black market value,†Babers said. “There are people who approach our employees on a daily basis to see if they can entice them.â€
See? It’s our fault. If we didn’t tempt DC government employees with stuff, they wouldn’t be corrupt. Shame on us!
And DC voters perpetuate this cycle of corruption.
