Sunday, March 15, 2009

Another One (Or Two) Bites The Dust

Oh, y'all are gonna love this story. I am sure everyone remembers that our new Secretary of The Treasury is a big ol' Tax Frauder. So are Tom Daschle, and several other people Obama has nominated for positions - TOP positions - in our government. (I still cannot believe that our Senate approved someone who owed tens of thousands of dollars in back taxes - supposedly fines, too, if he was treated like any other American - hahahaha - I could barely type that out - is in charge of the IRS!!!!!)

Well get this. Oh, this is good. Another one of Obama's appointees, Vivek Kundra, had two people under him who have been arrested by the FBI. Yes, you read that right, and you can read more here:
An employee of the D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer and a private contractor were charged with corruption Thursday after an FBI raid at the former office of one of President Obama's appointees, Vivek Kundra.

Kundra is on leave from his White House job until further details of the case become known, a White House source tells the Associated Press.

Gee, ya THINK??? Well, then again, int his age of Chicago-style politics gone national, who the hell knows? In Obama's world, he'll probably get a PROMOTION or something after this. You know there's more:
Kundra has not been linked to Thursday's raid.

Yusuf Acar, 40, acting chief security officer of the D.C. Office of the CTO, was charged with bribery of a public official, money laundering, wire fraud and conflict of interest.

Acar was ordered held without bond until a hearing Tuesday.

FBI agents found $70,000 in Acar's Northwest D.C. home when they arrested him Thursday morning.

Acar, a native of Turkey, is responsible for buying D.C.'s computer equipment and hiring contract workers for various D.C. agencies. Acar, who has been with the agency since December 2004, has an annual salary of $127,468, according to charging documents.

Sushil Bansal, President and CEO of Advanced Integrated Technologies Corporation (AITC) and a former D.C. government employee, was charged with bribery of a public official, money laundering, wire fraud and conflict of interest.

Bansal, 41, was released but ordered not to engage in overseas financial transactions and had to surrender his passport. Bansal, of Dunn Loring, Va., is due back in court on April 21.

Government records show Bansal, a native of India, is not a U.S. citizen and holds an H-1B visa, which is given to foreign workers in specialty occupations.

Authorities say Acar and Bansal, along with others, used a variety of schemes to defraud the D.C. government, including billing the District for inventory that was never delivered and billing "ghost" contract employees who never worked.

The alleged scheme involved Acar approving falsified bills and then splitting the money with Bansal - who submitted them - and other vendors, according to charging documents.

Wowie zowie. WHO is it that is supposed to be vetting people to work in the White House again? What am I saying - OBAMA was never thoroughly vetted, why should his employees have to be? Ahem. At least the FBI is playing well with others:
The FBI worked with another D.C. Office of the CTO employee who was in on the scheme and secretly recorded conversations with Acar and Bansal as part of the investigation.

Several other individuals and businesses are involved in the alleged schemes, but an FBI affidavit supporting the arrest warrants only identifies them by their initials.

Bansal's company has offices in D.C. and India and received more than $13 million in business with the D.C. government in the past five years, according to court documents.

One contract involved providing computer support to the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles. The company also was given a contract to upgrade the city's human resources computer records and sold virus detection software to the city.

In 2008, Bansal received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Association of Indians in America, according to AITC's Web site.

Last week, Kundra resigned from his post as D.C. chief technology officer to take a job in the Obama administration as the federal government's chief information officer.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the Department of Justice told the White House on Thursday morning of its planned raid.

However, Gibbs declined to comment on whether the White House was aware of the investigation before Thursday.

"No comment! No comment!" That is going to become the new "Words, Just Words!" of the Obama Administration, dontcha think? Gibbs hasn't been all that inspiring anyway, but boy, oh, boy - when something like this comes down the pike, I'm sure he has to be shoved out to the podium.

And here's the rest:
AITC has been working with the D.C. government since 2004. Once Kundra took over as D.C. Chief Technology Officer in March 2007, AITC's contracts doubled to more than $5 million in 2008.

Kundra has also worked for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). During his time at SAIC, Kundra provided consulting services at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

On AITC's Web site, Bansal lists SAIC as one of AITC's strategic partners and says his firm has performed contract work for HHS.

On Thursday morning, the FBI served a search warrant at the office of D.C.'s Chief Technology Officer.

More than a dozen FBI agents - including evidence technicians - were at the office, located at 1 Judiciary Square on 4th Street in Northwest.

Most of the employees were told to go home. Other employees were put into a waiting room.

The FBI later expanded its search from 9th floor offices to 10th floor offices.

The 10th floor was closed to the public while the FBI searched the offices that house the Administrative Services Modernization Program.

As the raid took place, Kundra was giving a speech at FOSE - an annual government technology expo - about changing the way the government purchases materials from vendors.

Doesn't the irony make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Or is that just your blood pressure rising? Kundra is giving a speech about changing the way the government buys stuff from vendors, while his office is being raided! You cannot make this shit up, people. It is almost laughable. Almost.

What happened to the "Change in the way things are done in Washington" meme that we heard about AD NAUSEUM from Obama? I guess the change is that they are just becoming more blatant about hiring a bunch of crooks. Holy smokes. If this keeps up, I'm gonna need a scorecard...

4 comments:

Mary Ellen said...

Honestly...how anyone could have thought that Obama would be ready on day one, is beyond me. I guess he has hit the floor running, though...running from reporters, running to his vacation spots, the poor, tired dear.

Ugh!

How are those puppies doing, btw? Any new pics?

Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy said...

I know, right? I guess that partying is wearing the poor thing out!! Meanwhile, Clinton just keeps going, and going, and going...

FUNNY you should ask, ME! I'm a it delayed in getting something up today because of some family drama, BUT - I have PUPPy photos! I am getting ready to put them up right now! :-D

Mary Ellen said...

Thanks for the pics. Oh my...my granddaughter would be in heaven if we visited you. She LOVES horses AND puppies. She'd be really impressed with the miniature horses!

I just spent the last hour checking out some of the Obamabot blogs. Oh my, most of them are not happy with their ruler. Then, there are those who are busy trying to blame everyone else but Obama for his mistakes. What a bunch of losers! I have the feeling that no matter how bad Obama screws these guys, they will vote for him again in the next election, just like the clowns who voted for Bush twice. They're all cut from the same cloth...to egotistic to admit they made a mistake.

Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy said...

Hey!

Well, by all means, you should BRING your granddaughter for a visit! We're only 10 minutes from the ocean, too, and it is WARM here - you can play in it for hours!

The minis are too cute for words - they were rescued by the woman who runs the stables from a client who left their care and feeding to her 9 yr old daughter. The horses were emaciated - they could barely stand (I am not exaggerating at all). Now, they are healthy, happy, have the most GORGEOUS manes on them, and are a blast to watch play and run! Besides Jordan and the minis, there are 4 other horses there, and one pony (also belongs to the woman who runs the stables - she rescued him, too).

Mary Ellen, you are so right on abt the Obamabots. I say that all the time abt them - they are EXACTLY like Bush supporters - EXACTLY!!! I saw an AOL poll the other day on Obama's performance thus far. Half the people gave him the grade of F. But just like Bush's munions, there were the 20-something % who give him an A. What DOES it take?!?!

But you're right - they will never, ever admit they were had, because what would that say abt THEM??

Thanks for the report - I appreciate it! Good to hear from you!