The $822,000-per-Year Bureaucrat and the Death of California

Hopefully we’re all disgusted when insiders rig the system to rip off taxpayers. And I suspect you’re not surprised to see that the worst example on that list comes from California, which is in a race with Illinois to see which state can become the Greece of America.

Well, the Golden State has a new über-bureaucrat. Here are some of the jaw-dropping details from a Bloomberg report.

Judge Judy was incensed about this-—sending the videotape to Congress.

LATINO JUST HERE FOR A BETTER LIFE SCAM-ARAMA Seems this tax-sucking latino worked for Cali’s San Bernardino County Dept of Corrections. He said he worked 9 mos and got 3 mos time off to be with his children-—one of whom was college age.

JJ asked him how he supported himself those 3 mos——he said he collected UI. Seems the Dept of Cook-rections calculately “laid him off” and rehired him 3 mos later. He had been doing that for nine years. falsifying govt documents to get UI tax dollars-—AKA government fraud.

Now get this-—when he was “laid off” to be “with his children,” he was traveling to be with his girlfriend-—she was suing him for a $4000 loan-—which was why they were in JJ’s court.

In 2010, officials at the West Contra Costa School District, just east of San Francisco, were in a bind. The district needed $2.5 million to help secure a federally subsidized $25 million loan to build a badly needed elementary school.

Charles Ramsey, president of the school board, says he needed that $2.5 million upfront, but the district didn't have it.

Why would you leave $25 million on the table? You would never leave $25 million on the table.- Charles Ramsey, school board president, West Contra Costa School District. “We'd be foolish not to take advantage of getting $25 million” when the district had to spend just $2.5 million to get it, Ramsey says. “The only way we could do it was with a [capital appreciation bond].”

Those bonds, known as CABs, are unlike typical bonds, where a school district is required to make immediate and regular payments. Instead, CABs allow districts to defer payments well into the future — by which time lots of interest has accrued.In the West Contra Costa Schools’ case, that $2.5 million bond will cost the district a whopping $34 million to repay.”

They needed to raise $2.5M to get a $25M federal loan to build a new school, so they borrowed that 2.5 too using a CAB which doesnt require any immediate payments but has high interest in the future. Now they owe $34B on the debt from that $25M school which for which they didnt even have the upfront $2.5M.

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LOTTA PORK FOR POLS IN THOSE GOVT BOND ISSUES Californians hase a busy bee state Treasurer---Bill Lockyer---saddling business and individual taxpayers with billions in taxes via those Wall Street bonding deals he loves to put together. How very easy it is for conniving pols to get s gigantic piece of those billion dollar pies.

Wall Street knows how to make money disappear faster than a cream puff at a Weight Watchers weigh-in.

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A Labyrinth of Govt Fraud----stories like this mean astonishingly easy----massive govt fraud.

REFERENCE Govt officials find 2nd off-the-books bank account / LAT / February 17, 2011

Montebello, Cali govt officials said they discovered yet a.n.o.t.h.e.r secret off-the-books bank account that once contained nearly $1 million in city govt funds. Officials do not know why the secret account was created, why it was never recorded on the city's general ledger or what happened to the govt money that was transferred out. One signator on the secret account was former City Manager Richard Torres. City policy generally requires the treasurer to be a signator, not the city manager. The bank holding the secret account refused to disclose to the city who the other two signators are.

Revelations about a secret Union Bank account follow news of an off-the-books account at Banco Popular discovered earlier....That account contained about $240,000 govt monies; officials also discovered records that indicated tens of thousands of govt dollars had been transferred out. They do not know to whom or why.

City govt's official banker is Bank of the West. Officials have asked for bank statements and records and are hoping to reconstruct what happened. They have also queried every member of the govt finance department to ask if they know of any other off-the-books accounts. The Union Bank account came to light when an employee

spontaneously alerted the finance director. Officials found out about the Banco Popular account when the bank contacted city govt because the account had been dormant for a while.

The news about the secret accounts comes as Montebello struggles to close a deficit that could force officials to make deep service cuts and lay off employees. Criminal probes have also begun in San Bernardino agencies for possible govt fraud.

REFERENCE Here's how pols loot and pillage the govt in Illinois: Dixon, Ill's dumb accountants, mayor and council failed to miss $53 million govt monies stolen by an insider---the Dixon, Ill govt comptroller.

The dumb*** Mayor never figured there was a secret bank account into which the Comptroller deposited govt funds. Trying to explain how that much money could disappear unnoticed, braindead Mayor James Burke said Dixon has struggled financially because "the state" is far behind on income tax disbursements to munis.....(now there's a red flag is there ever was one).

How Comptroller Rita Crundwell could sustain such an extravagant lifestyle on an $80,000 salary was mostly attributed to her success in the horse industry, the dumbest Mayor in the world stupidly said. "She definitely was a trusted employee, although I've had some suspicion for quite a while just because of her lifestyle," Mayor Burke said.

A Chicago-based corruption watchdog, the Better Govt Association, called Dixon a wakeup call for state and local officials to put in place better safeguards, especially in smaller towns that lack rigorous oversight. "Tens of billions of our tax dollars flow through 7,000 plus units of government in Illinois every year. And we can only watch a few of them," said the association's president, Andy Shaw. "Most of them don't have inspector generals. Most of them don't have auditor generals. Most of them don't have watchdog groups looking closely.... It's ripe for rip-offs."

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REFERENCE An astoundingly brazen larceny -- $5.7 million was electronically emptied out of the coffers of Columbia University into an employee's bank account. Now, several university employees are on trial----accused of funneling the stolen millions into the Bank account of alleged mastermind George Castro, 49, in collusion w/ two workers in the university's accounts payable dept..... allegedly altering a routing code and other info connected to payments slated to go from the university's medical center to an affiliate hospital.

The money never reached its destination. "Within six weeks, over $5 million meant for New York Presbyterian Hospital found it's way into the employee's Bank account," prosecutors said.

When nabbed by cops, one university employee was carrying bags of money -- $200,000 in cash -- into his new $80,000 Audi as cops busted him outside his Bronx residence..... he and his co-defendants had at that point thrown hundreds of thousands of stolen dollars into failed day trading investments. One accounting dept insider pled guilty to grand larceny and is hoping to avoid jail by testifying against the four defendants and his accounts payable co-conspirator. (NYPOST.COM)

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