Corruption Isn’t Just A Washington Thing

The recent lobbyist scandals in Washington may give the impression that corruption is limited to political bigwigs in Congress, but FBI statistics reveal that fraud is widespread in all levels of government, including judges, state legislators and even local municipality clerks.

In fact, in the last two years more than 1,000 government officials have been convicted of corruption. Additionally, 177 federal official, 158 state officials, 360 local officials and 365 police officers were charged with some type of fraud.

A few examples–covered in the past by Judicial Watch–include New Mexico State Treasurer Robert Vigil (accepted kickbacks), California Congressman Randy Cunningham (accepted bribes), former Illinois Governor George Ryan (took kickbacks in exchange for government contracts) and Ohio Governor Bob Taft (ethics violation for failing to report gifts).

Even low-level workers such as those at the Department of Motor Vehicle, have been caught in fraud recently. In Arizona 34 employees were charged with taking bribes to make fake licenses and in Tennessee license examiners accepted bribes in exchange for illegal immigrant driving certificates.