Law Commons^™

Canadian Corruption And The Snc-Lavalin Affair, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

On February 7, 2019, The Globe and Mail published a report alleging that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, together with his aides and cabinet officers, had attempted to improperly influence former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould in the Canadian Justice Department’s prosecution of Montreal construction firm SNC-Lavalin. SNC-Lavalin is a major company, which employs thousands of workers and reported 10 billion Canadian Dollars in revenue in 2018. The charges against them centered around allegations that they had made numerous bribes to Libyan officials from 2001-2011 in order to secure contracts. Due to these charges, SNC-Lavalin faces a potential ban on bidding …

Re-Examining The Line Between Personal And Political Campaign Expenditures: Possible Solutions For A Hazy Statutory Framework, Jeffrey Greenberg

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

On Wednesday, May 16, 2018, the Public Integrity Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s Office indicted Richard Thomas. Thomas, the mayor of Mount Vernon, New York, faced felony charges of grand larceny and filing false statements resulting from the alleged theft of thousands of dollars from his mayoral campaign committee, Friends of Richard Thomas, for meals, automobile payments, and other personal expenses. While Thomas eventually pled guilty to misdemeanor charges and resigned from office, the prosecutors’ choice to use fraud and theft statutes rather than election law violations as the foundation for their theory of the case calls …

The Department Of Defense Office Of Inspector General’S Seven Key Principles For Improving Our Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey Scores, Glenn A. Fine

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Every year, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) surveys employees throughout the federal government on how they view their organizations. This survey, called the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, or FedView Survey, asks federal employees a variety of questions about their views of their organization, managers, supervisors, and senior leaders; whether the employees believe they have the training and tools they need to do their jobs; overall how satisfied they are with their organization; and several other important questions related to employee engagement. The Partnership for Public Service then analyzes the results of the survey and ranks the government organizations on …

Prosecuting Vote Suppression By Misinformation, Chelsea Mihelich

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, concerns about the influence of “fake news” proliferated in the media. Questions abounded regarding the affect social media platforms may have had on the electorate. Election Day 2016 had many in the media pondering: “Did Social Media Ruin Election 2016?” and “Facebook’s failure: did fake news and polarized politics get Trump elected?” Two years after the election, social science scholars were still studying the effect of voters’ consumption of fake news stories leading up to November 8. The current fascination in the U.S. regarding fake news and, relatedly, the role of social media as …

Governance And Public Transparency: The Brazilian Case, Humberto E.C. Mota Filho, Cláudio Nascimento Alradique

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Aiming to provide an overall assessment of the impact of the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil (“CFRB” - which is in effect since 1988), in the construction of a Democratic State of Law, over the past 30 years, this article investigates how the institutional improvements achieved took form, the transformation of the State's role in the enforcement of human rights and individual guarantees, and the changes that took place towards a democratic political culture, both from the perspective of the citizen relating to the State and the citizen relating to the State's external oversight body (“TCU” - Federal …

From The Basketball Court To Federal Court: Perils Of The Prosecutorial Approach To Wire Fraud In The Ncaa Basketball Cases, Paul Tuchmann

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Three similar criminal cases involving college basketball are currently progressing through the Southern District of New York. The first to go to trial, United States v. James Gatto, Merl Code, and Christian Dawkins, No. 17 Crim. 686, culminated in a guilty verdict on October 24, 2018, with all three defendants found guilty on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York alleged that the Gatto defendants participated in a scheme in which the defendants—former Adidas employees Gatto and Code, as well as aspiring sports agent …

Oversight And Enforcement Of Public Integrity – A City-By-City Study: Nashville, Berit Berger, Edward Popovici, Rosie Fatt, Benjamin Bleibert

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Nashville’s identity, at least to an outsider’s eye, is inextricably linked to its musical heritage. But quite apart from its lyrical inclinations, Music City USA also has history of corruption scandals, countered by grassroots efforts of its citizenry to push for a more open and transparent government. The recent corruption charges against ex-Mayor Megan Barry and the “Do Better” law passed at the end of 2018 perfectly exemplify these dueling motifs of corruption and public integrity activism.

Nashville was founded in 1779 under the name of Fort Nashborough. In 1806, Nashville was granted a charter by the Tennessee legislature and …

Report Of The Task Force For The Promotion Of Public Trust: City Of Atlanta, Leah Ward Sears, Derek Alphran, O.V. Brantley, Linda Disantis, William S. Duffy Jr., Robert M. Franklin Jr., Maryanne Gaunt, Lawton Jordan, Don Penovi, Michael T. Sterling, Joseph Wilkinson Jr., Paul Zucca

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

The Task Force for the Promotion of Public Trust was formed out of a desire by the Mayor and Atlanta City Council to strengthen the City’s ethical environment and analyze the City’s existing resources pertaining to oversight and investigations currently divided among a number of City agencies. The Task Force was also asked to assess the role of the City’s Independent Compliance Office, a new investigative office created by Ordinance earlier this year. The mandate of the Task Force was to juxtapose an analysis of the operational roles of the multiple offices in Atlanta responsible for investigations, ethics, oversight, audit, …

Tweets, Lobbying, And Loopholes: A Pragmatic Approach To Lobbying Reform, Jackson Rubinowitz

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

On May 30, 2019, an unlikely agreement between Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ted Cruz appeared to take place on Twitter. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that members of Congress should be banned from becoming corporate lobbyists or should at least be subjected to a waiting period following their congressional service. Ocasio-Cortez cited a statistic from Public Citizen, in which the advocacy group reported that among former Congress members who move to jobs outside of politics, nearly 60% start lobbying or otherwise influencing federal policy. After Cruz weighed in expressing his agreement with Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal, Ocasio-Cortez proposed a deal to co-lead a bill …

The Guatemalan Presidential Election, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

With current President Jimmy Morales’ term concluding in 2020, the presidential election is currently underway in Guatemala to determine his successor. The Constitution of Guatemala prohibits incumbent presidents from running for a second term and several prominent political figures are competing to replace President Morales, with many accusations about their checkered political past.

Corruption In Basketball: Understanding United States V James Gatto Et. Al., Cara Christina Maines, Edward Popovici

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

In United States v. James Gatto et. al., federal prosecutors successfully argued that violations of rules adopted by private associations can form the basis for federal criminal prosecution. The convictions in the Gatto case established that rules promulgated by the National College Athletic Association, the NCAA, could serve as the basis for felony charges of, among others, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The Gatto trial was part of a much larger investigation by the FBI into NCAA sports corruption. This paper will look at the NCAA investigation with a focus on James Gatto and his associates, …

Proposal For A New State Ethics Commission In New York, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

With the start of the 2019 legislative session, some New York lawmakers are setting their sights on overhauling the state’s current anti-corruption and ethics structure. Since 2000, 30 New York lawmakers have left state office facing criminal or ethical allegations and many more public employees have faced allegations of criminal or unethical conduct and termination of their employment. Leading the effort to overhaul the current system is Senator Liz Krueger, a Democrat from Manhattan, who recently announced her plan to introduce a constitutional amendment that would create a new independent ethics commission to investigate wrongdoing by public officials. The Center …