Bucchianeri hopes to unseat Murtha in primary

A Monongahela man with ties to Fayette County is seeking the Democratic nomination for Congress for the seat currently held by 36-year incumbent U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Johnstown.

Ryan Bucchianeri, a seventh-generation Pennsylvanian who was born and raised in the district, has announced he will seek the 12th Congressional District seat, and held his first rally earlier this month in front of supporters in his hometown of Monongahela.

That campaign will include a meet-the-candidate event in Fayette County at 7 p.m. today at AMVETS Post 103 in Hopwood. He said he plans to travel to all areas of the district, which includes portions of nine counties, during the next few months.

The primary will be held May 18, and the first day to circulate nomination petitions is Feb. 16.

Bucchianeri, 34, is a former naval officer and Harvard Kennedy School graduate. After graduating from Harvard, Ryan worked in international business development as a manager at Lockheed Martin to enable the responsible trade of American technology and sustain American jobs.

In South America, he worked on a proposal to reduce the flow of illegal drugs into the United States, and in Eastern Europe he worked to strengthen regional security with NATO partners.

His mother, Rosemary (Rich) Bucchianeri, is a native of Uniontown and graduate of Uniontown Area High School. Bucchianeri's grandparents were Dominick and Virginia Rich, and they owned and operated the Fayette Institute of Technology in Uniontown.

"I'm running for Congress to serve people of southwestern Pennsylvania, not the special interests of high-powered lobbyists who continue to maintain their power at our expense. Until we send new representation to Washington, we will continue to suffer the financial and ethical consequences of irresponsible earmarks and a power-structure designed to keep incumbents in office," he said.

Bucchianeri, who wasn't even born when Murtha first took office, said he looks forward to a competitive race and spirited debate this spring.

"I'm not going to be able to outspend (Murtha) but I will outwork him," Bucchianeri said.

"Voters I talk with throughout the district are ready to turn the page and elect new leadership," he said. "I'm running for Congress to bring a new voice to Washington and return responsible leadership to western Pennsylvania."

Bucchianeri said he has a long family lineage of coal miners and educators in Fayette and Greene counties. He said he proudly followed in the footsteps of his maternal grandfather, Dominick Rich, who served in the Navy Seabees in World War II in the Southwest Pacific in the very same waters that he sailed years later as a naval officer.

"Public policy is a true passion of mine because I believe that responsible policy and good governance are the most effective ways to help others and have the greatest impact to improve our world," Bucchianeri said.

The first-time candidate said he decided to run for this office because most of his background is on a national or international level.

He said while Murtha has had a long history of service, he believes people of the area are ready for a change.

"I will work to bring opportunity to a region that has suffered too long from economic decline.

"Most of my contemporaries have long left the district for opportunities elsewhere and our hometown streets and storefronts, once vibrant and bustling centers of commerce, are emptying at an alarming rate. This trend has to be reversed or we will continue to face the dire economic consequences of high unemployment and an aging population with little opportunity," Bucchianeri said.

He said through infrastructure development, a well-trained workforce and innovative marketing, he would work to create and sustain jobs "throughout the district, not solely in a single city or a single industry."

In addition to a better-educated and properly trained workforce, Bucchianeri said he would fight to bring the necessary infrastructure into western Pennsylvania to attract industry and ensure our workforce remains competitive in a global economy.

"With a vibrant economy and new opportunities, young people will stay in the region, energizing it for generations to come, instead of leaving for opportunities elsewhere," Bucchianeri said.

For more information about Bucchianeri's campaign, visit his Web site at www.ryan2010.com.

US Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Johnstown, has helped to direct millions of dollars in federal defense appropriations to major defense contractors that sub-contract large portions of the jobs to Kuchera Defense Systems. Employees and associates are among major contributors to Murtha political campaigns. In January, agents from the FBI, the IRS and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service searched the office of Kuchera Industries and Kuchera Defense Systems, as well as the homes of the firms' founders. The companies reportedly have received over $100 million in earmarks, thanks to Murtha's efforts.

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There's so many other crimes being committed here it's not even funny. Can you say government fraud, multiple conspiracies, kickbacks, tax evasion (all of it to facilitate money laundering)? Conspiracy counts alone might include mail fraud, electronic fraud, and accounting fraud. L/E might consider:

(a) conspiracy to defraud the IRS, and evade US banking laws,

(b) international money laundering,

(d) aiding and abetting the preparation of false federal/state income tax returns.

Authorities might examine the company's receipts to falsely verify bogus charitable contributions (kickbacks) and multiple conspiracies and transfers of funds as part of a money-laundering conspiracy.

Government audits might show off-the-books bank accounts that were accessed solely by insiders, and that government-funds were used in various illegal schemes that might have integrated:

(1) money laundering,

(2) tax evasion (stolen money is taxable),

(3) violations of US banking and currency laws,

(4) conspiracy to commit wire fraud,

(5) commercial bribery in various financial schemes,

(6) establishing secret offshore bank accounts outside the purview of the IRS and US banking laws,

(7) fraudulent and casual accounting practices,

(8) non-existent financial oversight,

(9) having a hidden financial interest in companies faking business with the company,

(10) putting phantom employees on the payroll (money laundering).

It's been postulated that co-conspirators were laundering proceeds from drug cartels and organized crime activities, whether drug dealers use the Murtha Airport, and whether money was laundered through this company.

There's a zillion ways to launder money. Drug monies could have been disguised by re-routing monies. Company may have routed the scheme through telephone lines with a maze of complex telecommunications' systems equipped with call-forwarding and voice mail systems, and numerous postal and commercial mail boxes..........and perhaps money-transfer systems that operate in ethnic enclaves and places like NYC's Diamond District.

Investigators may discover numerous falsified official documents.

Drug monies could have been disguised by re-routing through a network of domestic and international bank accounts using counterfeit checks.....opening commercial bank accounts in the name of bogus businesses and wire-transferring and/or depositing gov't checks into those accounts.

Phony checks could have had invalid bank routing numbers, forged endorsements, or been drawn on the proceeds of other counterfeit checks deposited in other bank accounts. Before banks discovered the fraud, the funds might have been transferred out of the accounts……probably offshore----leaving banks unable to recoup their losses.

State and federal tax authorities could have been swindled. In an international scheme with offshore ties, co-conspirators or subsets of them, might have obtained hundreds of taxpayer identification numbers for phantom citizens with worldwide addresses, and used the information to evade US taxes and banking laws.

In a classic fraud, co-conspirators might keep two (or more) sets of books. Methods may have included limited-recourse loans to artificially inflate "asset value," to fraudulently borrow real money based on “assets” that didn’t really exist.

ACTIONABLE OFFENSES MIGHT INCLUDE:
(1) Encouraging the filing of false documents;
(2) Rigging legislation to benefit a special interest.
(3) Forcing taxpayers to underwrite crimes against the state without their knowledge or consent (constitutes the crime of second degree coercion of taxpayers, and should beprosecuted at once);
(4) Not reporting crimes against the state (aiding and abetting).

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Is The FBI Getting Closer To Murtha?
TPM | 7-21-09 | Zachary Roth
FR Posted 07/21/2009 by smoothsailing

For months now, the Pennsylvania Democratic power-broker's name has been popping up in connection to a wide-ranging FBI investigation of defense contractors and lobbyists to whom he has ties. And yesterday brought more bad news... Mark O'Hair, a former Air Force employee pleaded guilty (sub. req.) Monday in connection to getting a kickback from a defense contract that Murtha, who chairs the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee, had provided.

Roll Call reports: According to the plea agreement, filed in a federal court in Florida, in May 2005, "Congress passed a tsunami relief act which included within the provisions of the act an $8.2 million earmark for the development of the 'Mobile Common Data Link Gateway.' Coherent Systems International, Inc. (CSI) had lobbied for this earmark appropriation."

Roll Call reported in June that Coherent was represented by KSA Consulting, the lobbying firm that employed Murtha's brother, Kit, and that the Congressman had provided this earmark to Coherent by eliminating the same sum from a project that had been designated for a previous client of his brother's firm.

The O'Hair case appears to begin tying together the other strands of the FBI probe that has put Murtha -- who frequently appears on good-government groups' lists of the most corrupt lawmakers -- in the spotlight.

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