Extortion: How Politicians Extract Your Money, Buy Votes, and Line Their Own Pockets

by Schweizer, Peter

  29. Rachel Leven, “FEC to Congress: Expand Ban on Personal Use of Political Committee Funds,” The Hill, May 12, 2012.

  7. Trust Me: You’re Gonna Need to Pay Me

  1. “Too Big Not to Fail,” The Economist, February 18, 2012.

  2. Ibid.

  3. “Over-regulated America,” The Economist, February 18, 2012.

  4. “Too Big Not to Fail ,” The Economist.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Amanda Becker, “Multitudes of Lobbyists Weigh in on Dodd-Frank Act,” Washington Post, November 22, 2010.

  7. U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Financial Stability Oversight Council,” http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/fsoc/Pages/home.aspx; Cornell University Law School, Legal Information Institute, “Dodd-Frank: Title X—Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection,” http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/dodd-frank_title_ x.

  8. Alan Siegel and Irene Etzkorn, Simple: Conquering the Crisis of Complexity (New York: Twelve, 2013), p. 22.

  9. See Anthony Giles Heyes, “Expert Advice and Regulatory Complexity,” Journal of Regulatory Economics 24, no. 2 (2003): 120; and Anthony Heyes, “Revolving Doors and Regulatory Complexity, or, Another Reason Why American Regulation Is So Darn’d Difficult,” http://www.soc.uoc.gr/calendar/2000EAERE/papers/Pdf2/H4-Heyes.pdf.

  10. George LeMieux, interview with the author.

  11. Promontory, “Careers,” http://www.promontory.com/OurCareers.aspx.

  12. Ben Protess and Jessica Silver-Greenberg, “Former Regulators Find a Home with a Powerful Firm,” New York Times, April 10, 2013.

  13. Tim Carney, “Dodd-Frank’s Winners: Revolving-Door Regulators,” Washington Examiner, July 24, 2011.

  14. Hogan Lovells, “Senior Counsel to U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Rejoins Hogan Lovells” (press release), March 7, 2011, http://www.hoganlovells.com/newsmedia/newspubs/detail.aspx?news=1836.

  15. George LeMieux, interview with the author.

  16. Robert Wenzel, “The Completely Disgusting Government/Crony Capitalism Revolving Door,” Economic Policy Journal (December 27, 2012).

  17. “We’re about to receive legislation that could better be entitled ‘The Lawyers’ and Lobbyists’ Full Employment Act.’” Harvey Pitt, “The Ugly Truth About Financial-Regulatory Reform,” The Daily Beast, July 13, 2010.

  18. Cass Sunstein, Simpler: The Future of Government (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013) pp. 12, 35.

  19. Silverglate, Three Felonies a Day, p. xxxvi.

  20. John Allison, interview with the author.

  21. Joel A. Mintz, Enforcement at the EPA: High Stakes and Hard Choices (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995).

  22. Anthony Heyes, “Revolving Doors and Regulatory Complexity,” Discussion Papers in Economics 99/1, Royal Holloway University of London, Department of Economics, February 2000.

  23. John Hofmeister, interview with the author.

  24. Christine Simmons, “New Rules Create Jobs for Attorneys at Hedge Funds,” New York Law Journal (December 28, 2012).

  25. Senator Ron Johnson, interview with the author.

  26. John Cochrane, “Three Kinds of Regulation,” The Grumpy Economist, January 2, 2012, http://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com/2012/01/three-kinds-of-regulation.html.

  27. Richard Williams, “Regulatory Overload,” Mercatus Center, George Mason University, February 8, 2012, http://mercatus.org/publication/regulatory-overload-0.

  28. Murphy & McGonigle, “Murphy & McGonigle Professionals,” http://www.murphymcgonigle.com/Staff/?id=24.

  29 “Former Senior SEC Official Joins Murphy & McGonigle,” PR Newswire, February 22, 2011, http://www.bizjournals.com/prnewswire/press_releases/2011/02/22/PH51642.

  30. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, “FINRA Leadership,” http://www.finra.org/AboutFINRA/Leadership/P127206.

  31. Securities and Exchange Commission, “Robert Colby, Deputy Director of Trading and Markets Division, to Leave SEC After 27 Years of Service” (press release), February 2, 2009.

  32. Cooley LLP, “SEC Commissioner Roel C. Campos Joins Cooley” (press release and announcements), August 23, 2007.

  33. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates, “Brian V. Breheny,” http://www.skadden.com/professionals/brian-v-breheny (accessed May 9, 2013); and “SEC Deputy Director Brian V. Breheny Joins Skadden as Partner,” October 4, 2010, http://www.skadden.com/news-events/sec-deputy-director-brian-v-breheny-joins-skadden-partner (accessed May 9, 2013).

  34. Silverglate, Three Felonies a Day, p. 46. See chapter 2 of Silverglate’s book for examples.

  35. Thomas Scully, interview with the author.

  36. Peter H. Stone and Louis Jacobson, “Former Medicare Chief Soldiers on in Wake of Ethics Investigation,” Government Executive, April 9, 2004.

  37. Congressman Bruce Braley (website), “Braley Renews Push to Streamline Regulations, Hold Government Accountable,” April 15, 2013, http://braley.house.gov/press-release/braley-renews-push-streamline-regulations-hold-government-accountable.

  38. Glenn Greenwald, “Obamacare Architect Leaves White House for Pharmaceutical Industry Job,” The Guardian, December 5, 2012.

  39. See Daschle’s account in Getting It Done: How Obama and Congress Finally Broke the Stalemate to Make Way for Health Care Reform (New York: St. Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne Books, 2010).

  40. Chris Frates, “Lobbyists Call Bluff on ‘Daschle Exemption,’” Politico, July 26, 2010.

  41. Opensecrets.org, “Myers, John,” http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/lobbyist.php?id=Y0000045287L.

  42. Timothy P. Carney, “Top Obama Health Aide Cashes Out After Health ‘Reform,’” Washington Examiner, May 29, 2011.

  43. Ibid.

  44. Timothy P. Carney, “Obamacare Improves Another Life: Bill’s Architect Cashes Out to Pharma Giant,” Washington Examiner, December 6, 2012.

  45. Patrick Dixon, “Energy Use Consulting—Boom Industry,” GlobalChange.com, http://www.globalchange.com/energy-use-consulting-boom-industry.htm.

  46. Tanina Rostain, “The Emergence of ‘Law Consultants,’” Fordham Law Review 75 (2006): 1410.

  47. Alice Ramey, “Going ‘Green’: Environmental Jobs for Scientists and Engineers,” Occupational Outlook Quarterly (Summer 2009): 5.

  48. Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, “What Every Nebraska Business Should Know About Environmental Permits” (fact sheets), http://www.deq.state.ne.us/Publica.nsf/Pages/EAD007.

  49. Gregg LaBar, “Mandating Safety Programs,” Occupational Hazards (February 1998).

  50. Joe Nocera, “The Foreclosure Fiasco,” New York Times, January 14, 2013; Alan Zibel and Dan Fitzpatrick, “Scant Relief in Foreclosure Payouts,” Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2013.

  51. Jeff Horwitz and Kate Berry, “Foreclosure Reviews: Exorbitant for Banks, Gold Mines for Consultants,” American Banker, November 1, 2012.

  52. Ibid.; Nocera, “The Foreclosure Fiasco”; Zibel and Fitzpatrick, “Scant Relief in Foreclosure Payouts .”

  53. Joe Costanzo, “Charges Brought in Payoff Case; Ex-Regulator over Envirocare Is Accused,” Deseret News, March 25, 1999.

  54. Eric Helland and Michael Sykuta, “Deregulation and Board Composition: Evidence on the Value of the Revolving Door,” CORI Working Paper 01–01, University of Missouri–Columbia, Contracting and Organizations Research Institute, January 2001, p. 12.

  55. Michael J. Licari, “Bureaucratic Discretion and Regulatory Success Without Enforcement,” in Politics, Policy, and Organizations: Essays on the Scientific Study of Bureaucracy, ed. George Krause and Kenneth J. Meier (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press).

  56. Siegel and Etzkorn, Simple, pp. 11, 4–5.

  57. Michael J. Waggoner, “The House Erred: A Carbon Tax Is Better Than Cap and Trade,” Legal Studies Research Paper Series, Working Paper 09–18, Tax Analysis (October 15, 2009): 1261.

  58. Ibid., p. 1262.

  59. Siegel and Etzkorn, Simple, p. 42.

  60. Ibid., p. 197.

  61. Heyes, “Revo
lving Doors and Regulatory Complexity.”

  8. Protection for a Price: What About a Washington Corrupt Practices Act?

  1. Ronald J. Ostrow, “Bribery, Intimidation Reported Among Duties of Mafia Lawyers,” Los Angeles Times, January 30, 1986.

  2. Silverglate, Three Felonies a Day, p. xxv.

  3. Ibid., p. xxxvi.

  4. Fulmer and Knill, “Political Contributions and the Severity of Government Enforcement,” pp. 1, 16.

  5. Ibid., 20.

  6. Maria Correia, “Political Connections, SEC Enforcement, and Accounting Quality,” Working Paper 61, Stanford University Rock Center for Corporate Governance, August 1, 2012.

  7. Frank Yuy and Xiaoyun Yu, “Corporate Lobbying and Fraud Detection,” Journal of Financial Quantitative Analysis 46 (2011): 1865–91.

  8. Sanford C. Gordon, “Assessing Partisan Bias in Federal Public Corruption Prosecutions,” American Political Science Review 103, no. 4 (November 2009): 534–54.

  9. Marilyn Young, Michael Reksulak, and William F. Shughart II, “The Political Economy of the IRS,” Economics and Politics 13, no. 2 (July 2001): 201.

  10. Matthew Mosk, “IRS Suspicion Widens: GOP Donors Question Audits,” ABC News, May 15, 2013, http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/irs-suspicion-widens-gop-donors-question-audits/story?id=19184358#.UZumepUeZG4.

  11. Opensecrets.org, “Barack Obama’s Bundlers,” http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/bundlers.php?id=N00009638.

  12. Claire Heininger, “Corzine Profile Rises in Obama Camp,” NJ.com, June 23, 2008, http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/topstories/index.ssf/2008/06/corzine_profile_in_obama_camp.html.

  13. James B. Stewart, “Trustee Sees Customers Trampled at MF Global,” New York Times, June 8, 2012.

  14. Mark Melin, “The Untold Story: Legal Professor Views MF Global with Suspicion,” Opalesque Futures Intelligence, December 13, 2012, http://www.opalesque.com/OFI1310/The_Untold_Story_Legal_Professor_Views_MF_Global310.html.

  15. Paula Dwyer, “Six Reasons Why Jon Corzine Should Exit Wall Street,” Bloomberg, April 9, 2013.

  16. Bruce Bialosky, “Corzine’s Crime of the Century,” National Review Online, February 5, 2013, http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/339811/corzine-s-crime-century-bruce-bialosky.

  17. Louis J. Freeh, as Chapter 11 Trustee of MF Global Holdings Ltd., et al., Plaintiff, v. Jon S. Corzine, Bradley I. Abelow, and Henri J. Steenkamp, Defendants, pp. 57–58.

  18. Silla Brush, “Gensler Recusal Faulted in CFTC Watchdog’s MF Global Report,” Businessweek, May 22, 2013.

  19. Elaine Knuth, “MF Global’s Original Sin,” Futures, November 1, 2012.

  20. Ben Protess and Azam Ahmed, “MF Global Inquiry Turns to Its Primary Regulator,” New York Times, January 5, 2012; Mark Melin, “CME Group Independent Investigation Halted,” Opalesque Futures 45 (November 14, 2012): 19; Mark Melin, “Who Knew What and When Did They Know It? Who Gave a CFTC Lawyer His Marching Orders?” Opalesque Futures 45 (November 14, 2012).

  21. Mark Melin, “Delay in Congressional Report on MF Global Announced,” Opalesque Futures 45 (November 14, 2012): 11.

  22. Azam Ahmed and Ben Protess, “No Criminal Case Likely in Loss at MF Global,” New York Times, August 15, 2012.

  23. Stanley Haar, Opalesque Futures (December 12, 2012): 20.

  24. “MF Global Bankruptcy: Commodity Customer Coalition,” discussion on LinkedIn (subscription and group membership required), http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=4166821&type=member&item=180381682&trk=group_search_item_list-0-b-cmr&goback=.fps_PBCK_lisa+timmermann_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*2_*1_Y_*1_*1_*1_false_1_R_*1_*51_*1_*51_true_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2.npv_150142457_*1_*1_NAME*4SEARCH_HBWz_*1_en*4US_*1_*1_*1_7328f4d9*5526a*54785*58966*526ee346fb534*50_1_6_ps_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1.gna_4166821.

  25. U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, “Release: PR6626-13,” June 27, 2013.

  26. Kaja Whitehouse, “Corzine off the crook,” New York Post, July 7, 2013.

  27. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Tanaka Kakuei,” http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/582189/Tanaka-Kakuei.

  28. Dickinson Wright PLLC, “Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: A Compliance Roadmap,” http://www.worldcompliance.com/Libraries/WhitePapers/FCPA_Compliance_Roadmap_White_paper.sflb.ashx.

  29. Mike Koehler, “The Facade of FCPA Enforcement,” Georgetown Journal of International Law 41 (2010): 150–51.

  30. Lawrence J. Trautman and Kara Altenbaumer-Price, “The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Minefield for Directors,” Virginia Law and Business Review 6, no. 1 (Spring 2011).

  31. Professor Mike Koehler, “Examining Enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” prepared statement before the Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, November 30, 2010.

  32. Mike Koehler, “The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the Ultimate Year of Its Decade of Resurgence,” Indiana Law Review 43, no. 389 (2010): 389.

  33. Mike Koehler, “Lanny Breuer and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement,” Bloomberg BNA White Collar Crime Report 8 (March 22, 2013), p. 204, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2238156.

  34. U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), “Lanny A. Breuer, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, Prepared Keynote Address to the Tenth Annual Pharmaceutical Regulatory and Compliance Congress and Best Practices Forum,” November 12, 2009, http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pr/speeches-testimony/documents/11-12-09breuer-pharmaspeech.pdf.

  35. Illustration source: Securities and Exchange Commission, “SEC Enforcement Actions: FCPA Cases,” www.sec.gov/spotlight/fcpa/fcpa-cases.shtml and http://www. justice.gov/criminal/fraud/fcpa/cases/2013.html.

  36. Covington & Burling LLP, “Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” http://www.cov.com/offices/office.aspx?office=61&OfficeSpecialty=a596d0f4-4dde-428f-ba11-65cb429c9917.

  37. Trautman and Altenbaumer-Price, “The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Minefield for Directors,” p. 158.

  38. DOJ, “Lanny A. Breuer . . . Prepared Keynote Address . . .,” November 12, 2009.

  39. U.S. Department of Justice, “Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer Speaks at the 24th National Conference on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” November 16, 2010, http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pr/speeches/2010/crm-speech-101116.html.

  40. Barbara Black, “The SEC and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Fighting Global Corruption Is Not Part of the SEC’s Mission,” Ohio State Law Journal 73, no. 5 (2012): 1114.

  41. Matthew C. Turk, “A Political Economy Approach to Reforming the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business 33, no. 2 (2013): 340.

  42. Amy Deen Westbrook, “Enthusiastic Enforcement, Informal Legislation: The Unruly Expansion of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” Georgia Law Review 45 (Winter 2011): 489, 494.

  43. Trautman and Altenbaumer-Price, “The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Minefield for Directors,” p. 160.

  44. Lanny Breuer, speech delivered at the annual meeting of the Washington Metropolitan Area Corporate Counsel, January 26, 2011, quoted in Jessica Tillipman, “A House of Cards Falls: Why ‘Too Big to Debar’ Is All Slogan and Little Substance,” Public Law and Legal Theory Paper 2012–8, George Washington University Law School, January 13, 2012, p. 54.

  45. Mike Koehler, “The FCPA, Foreign Agents, and Lessons from the Halliburton Enforcement Action,” Ohio Northern University Law Review 36, no. 2 (2010): 468.

  46. Thomas McSorley, “Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” American Criminal Law Review 48 (Spring 2011): 749.

  47. Mike Koehler, “Big, Bold, and Bizarre: The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enters a New Era,” University of Toledo Law Review 43 (Fall 2011): 123.

  48. Koehler, “Lanny Breuer and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Enforcement.”

  49. Koehler, “Big, Bold, and Bizarre,” p. 123.

  50. Joe Palazzalo, “An FCPA Compliance Defense? No Way, Breuer Says,” Wall Street Journal, April 1, 201
1.

  51. Westbrook, “Enthusiastic Enforcement, Informal Legislation,” p. 497.

  52. Koehler, “The Facade of FCPA Enforcement,” p. 998.

  53. U.S. Department of Justice, “Remarks by Lanny A. Breuer, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, at the American Bar Association National Institute on White Collar Crime,” February 25, 2010, http://www.justice.gov/criminal/pr/speeches-testimony/2010/02-25-10aag-AmericanBarAssociation.pdf; Westbrook, “Enthusiastic Enforcement, Informal Legislation,” pp. 530–31.

  54. See Trautman and Altenbaumer-Price, “The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Minefield for Directors,” p. 159; and Amy Deen Westbrook, “Double Trouble: Collateral Shareholder Litigation Following Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Investigations,” Ohio State Law Journal 73, no. 5 (2012): 1223.

  55. Latham & Watkins LLP, “Understanding the FCPA Enforcement Trends in the Aerospace and Defense Industry: A Launch Pad to Effective Management of Anticorruption Risks,” April 2013.

  56. Tillipman, “A House of Cards Falls,” p. 53.

  57. Bruce Hinchey, “Punishing the Penitent: Disproportionate Fines in Recent FCPA Enforcements and Suggested Improvements,” Public Contract Law Journal 40 (2011): 393, 54.

  58. Mike Koehler, “Revisiting a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Compliance Defense,” Wisconsin Law Review 609 (2012): 646–47.

  59. U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division and Securities and U.S. Exchange Commission Enforcement Division, A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, November 14, 2012, http://www.sec.gov/spotlight/fcpa/fcpa-resource-guide.pdf.

  60. Turk, “A Political Economy Approach to Reforming the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.”

  61. Covington & Burling LLP, “Steven E. Fagell,” http://www.cov.com/sfagell.

  62. Covington & Burling LLP, “White Collar Defense & Investigations: Anti-Corruption,” http://www.cov.com/practice/white_collar_and_investigations/anti_cor ruption.