Hookers, Bribes, & Kickbacks: You Won’t Believe What This Treasury Department Investigation Reveals
- Posted on July 16, 2012 at 1:39pm by
Becket Adams
- Print »
- Email »
An investigation by the Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) cites certain department officials for “soliciting prostitutes, breaking conflict-of-interest rules“ and accepting ”gifts” from business executives, The Hill’s Bob Cusack reports.
“The revelations of unethical behavior at Treasury are detailed in little-noticed documents posted this month on governmentattic.org, which publishes agency responses to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests,” Cusack adds.
The documents reveal that not only were certain department officials engaged in clearly unethical behavior, but that some of it may have been illegal.
“In 2010, an OTS [the now-defunct Office of Thrift Supervision] employee ‘misused’ government resources to solicit prostitutes on three separate occasions via Craigslist,” The Hill reports.
“While working at the OTS, investigators said, the government staffer ‘viewed websites offering erotic services on a weekly basis as well as communicating with and arranging meetings with women offering erotic services,’” the report adds.
“Misuse” seems like an awful generous word, doesn’t it?
“The OIG concluded that the OTS worker had violated government rules on ‘notoriously disgraceful conduct,’” writes Cusack.
“The case was referred for criminal prosecution to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which opted not to prosecute ‘absent aggravating circumstances such as underage prostitutes or human trafficking,’” he adds.
That employee has since resigned from their job.
Then there’s this:
In another finding, the OIG cited an OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] staffer for accepting golf fees and meals from bank executives. The staffer, who had received ethics training, said he believed playing golf with industry officials under the purview of OCC was “a condoned activity.”
The golf outings took place on multiple occasions during workweeks when OCC was conducting bank examinations. Many of the greens fees and meals at the golf course were paid for by corporate executives.
The OIG stated the OCC official “violated several regulations covering ethics and the conduct of employees in the performance of their official duties.”
And last but not least:
OIG found other financial conflicts of interest with the OCC relating to contract bids and the acceptance of improper gifts such as flowers, meals and at least one limousine ride. A separate Treasury official was deemed to have a financial conflict of interest in 2010 when the bank examiner disclosed he had an overdraft protection line of credit loan from a financial institution that was regulated by the OTS.
Luckily for the targets of the OIG investigation, Treasury official’s names were redacted from the FOIA papers. It’s not clear who, exactly, is involved in the charges of misconduct.
The Treasury Department claims these were just isolated events and not indicative of the department’s culture.
“Treasury has a strong ethics policy that we expect all of our employees to follow, and the overwhelming majority of them do. As with any large organization, issues of misconduct occasionally arise. When that happens at Treasury, we act promptly and decisively to address them,” a Treasury spokesman told The Hill.
“The OIG moved aggressively to investigate the isolated instances of misconduct referenced in these documents, most of which were brought to the OIG’s attention by bureau management,” the spokesman added.
Aside from the employee who used Craigslist to pick up hookers, it’s unclear whether anyone else has resigned from their posts.
Popular Stories
Does Misstated Marathon Claim Prove Paul Ryan Is Dishonest? (POLL) 695 Comments
Paper Details Obama Admin’s Alleged Secret Note Sent to Iran: If Israel Attacks, We Won’t Get Involved 508 Comments
Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts 353 Comments
‘Made Up Religion’: TV Historian Enrages Muslims, Receives Threats After Producing UK Documentary Questioning Islam’s Beginnings 341 Comments
This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 328 Comments
Faith
- This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 328 Comments
Pakistani Muslim Cleric Accused of Framing Disabled Christian Girl in Koran-Burning Case Read More- ‘Made Up Religion’: TV Historian Enrages Muslims, Receives Threats After Producing UK Documentary Questioning Islam’s Beginnings 341 Comments
Meet the Controversial German Imam Accused of Brutally Beating His Wife & Pushing Sharia Law Read More
‘Self-Proclaimed Messiah’ & Unification Church Leader the Rev. Sun Myung Moon Has Died — Here’s His Life Story Read More
Business
President Obama Issues Major ‘Green Energy’ Executive Order 252 Comments- Germany’s Upcoming Court Ruling Will be Huge for the EU Read More
Ford Looks to Beat Toyota for Best-Selling Car in 2012 With This Model 148 Comments
Bernanke & QE3: Here’s What You Need to Know Read More- ‘Extortion’: Why Did the Labor Department ‘Drop the Hammer’ on Oregon Farmers? 302 Comments
Technology
- This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 328 Comments
‘TaserDrone’: Hackers Weaponize Quadcopter With Actual ‘Shocking’ Technology Read More
Ever Heard of the Wild ‘Burning Man’ Festival in the Middle of the Nev. Desert? Here’s Your Primer Read More
Stanford Develops Technology ‘Better Than Steroids’ for Athlete Recovery Read More
Have You Pretended to Know What ‘the Cloud’ Is? You’re Not Alone Read More
Submitting your tip... please wait!
Comments (44)
nocommie
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 9:41pmIf they are democrats,then they got a raise and a transfer.Most likely to D.O.E. or child services.
Report Post »G-WHIZ
Posted on July 17, 2012 at 1:27pmIf this was not an election year, these democrats-in-scandle would never have been “found-out”. Hundreds of millions$$ used in democrat-agency uber-parties for over 50years…this only “came-out” cause the Dems tried to blame-repubs for their own trash durring election-ploy.Gues-what… they’re democrats again trashing our economy…so now they’re trying to erase it as if it never happened!
Report Post »F_This
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 8:04pmFor the thousandth time, where is the MSM on this? Why7 aren’t they educating the public on exactly how corrupt our government is? That is their job!
Report Post »Mil Mom
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 8:48pm@F_This
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 8:04pm
For the thousandth time, where is the MSM on this? Why7 aren’t they educating the public on exactly how corrupt our government is? That is their job
Report Post »***
Remember hearing this statement all over the lsm in 2009, “Poor little Timmy Geithner up there all alone in that big old Treasury Building when the senate won’t approve him any help and he has to work such long hours!”
“Nuff said!”
frogg
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 6:15pmSome guy who didn’t pay his taxes! Vote the BUMS out! Please! Pretty PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Report Post »Meyvn
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 7:56pmWe HAVE GOT TO CLEAN SOME HOUSE!!! Like for the next 4 elections.
Report Post »americansfightingforcommonsense
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 8:10pmThe main problem I see here is that the person resigned! Now there is no record of who it was, and he probably is still working in our government somewhere. He should have been FIRED and then it put in his record so future employers would know what to expect from him.
Report Post »65Plus
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 4:42pmAnd who, exactly, is the Secretary of the Treasury? Oh.
Report Post »762x51
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 4:36pmThe OTS was set up by the FIRREA law in 1989 to liquidate the savings and loan institutions in the early 1990′s. Those institutions were the first of the casualties from the Community Reinvestment Act, the love child of the illustrious Barney Frank and and the failure Jimmy Carter, which ultimately brought you the Housing bubble of 2008. The FIRREA law sunset over a decade ago and so OTS should no longer even exist much lees be wasting taxpayer dollars on hookers.
If anyone is going to waste my money on hookers, I prefer it be me.
Report Post »762x51
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 4:22pmI think that we should combine the Secret Service with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and let them specialize in setting up Bachelor parties. We could pay off the debt in only a few years.
The corruption of this government is beyond fixing, it must be overthrown and reset to our original values as expressed in the Constitution.
Report Post »Airbornedevildog
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 10:22pmall empires rise and fall
Report Post »ronin_6
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 3:51pmUnless you are on the inside you just wouldn’t believe the graft, corruption and abuse that goes on at every level. I can tell you that this is nothing. NOTHING! Try and be a whistle blower. Try and set an example. Its like turning on a light and seeing the coakroaches go skittering into the dark. After a second you may not see them but they are still there, just waiting for you turn the light off.
Report Post »I love this country. I don’t want to see it torn apart. I am just not smart enough to figure out a solution.
Anamah
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 4:48pmSo find others smart and honest as Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck to name a well known couple and tell them… Do not keep silent!!!
Report Post »Mil Mom
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 8:52pm@ronin_6
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 3:51pm
Unless you are on the inside you just wouldn’t believe the graft, corruption and abuse that goes on at every level. I can tell you that this is nothing. NOTHING! Try and be a whistle blower. Try and set an example. Its like turning on a light and seeing the coakroaches go skittering into the dark. After a second you may not see them but they are still there, just waiting for you turn the light off.
Report Post »I love this country. I don’t want to see it torn apart. I am just not smart enough to figure out a solution.
***
I wonder if we can find enough Honest exterminators! We’ll have to disband the epa first (no caps, no respect) because they’d never approve the environmental impact of a good extermination!
scrudge
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 3:17pmAh Yes… again.. regretfully America will destroy it self from within… get use to it… people will do nothing to stop this tragedy…
Report Post »Larry E
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 3:04pmTreasury Dept doing unethical and illegal things? Not with LIttle Timmy the Tax Dodger as its leader. Please tell me it’s not true, oh heavens I‘m so upset and distraught I can’t believe it. Next they‘ll tell me that there’s no Easter Bunny or Santa Claus.
Report Post »HKS
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 3:15pmIt’s OK, Obama said so.
Report Post »65Plus
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 4:44pmHey! We all still need the Bunny.
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:48pmThe whole government is corrupt and needs to be taken over by the people, then cleaned out and started all over again.
Report Post »4R
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 3:02pmThe 12 Step Program for our of out of touch/control Politicians (most and/or all Politicians)
Report Post »1. We admitted we were powerless to control our over control and taxation of the American people — that our lives, our spending, and lack of understanding the U.S. Constitution had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Understanding that we may be impeached because of these actions.
6. Became entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character and vote for term limits for all branches of government.
7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings and all pork added to any bills including the ones we don’t read, this means all bills.
8. Made a list of all persons (this could be in the millions) we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all without adding any new legislation.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible with our own dollars.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admit it. This means do not lie.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out. This may in many cases mean va
Mil Mom
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 8:56pm@thegreatcarnac
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:48pm
The whole government is corrupt and needs to be taken over by the people, then cleaned out and started all over again
Report Post »***
It‘s beginning to look like we’ll all have to move into “Gated Communities” because we can’t build and staff enough Prisons for the felons in this cabal!
IMCHRISTIAN
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:44pmand this government thinks they can get better control of healthcare then the individuals but they will find out with investigations the Obamacare will not be the American dream. Big government means more problems such as more expenses and more regulations in everything. There will be more corruption and less freedom.
Report Post »JRook
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 3:06pmI agree with your general point as we have the best politicians money can buy on both sides of the isle. But two points of clarification. As PROVEN by the Medicare managed care pilot programs, private insurance companies were unable to provide similar benefits as Medicare at the same per beneficiary cost as the Medicare program. With something like health care this will happen when you peal off 15, 20 or more percent for profit. And also let’s not forget who pours the money into Washington trying to influence government employees and legislators for favorable contracts and many regulations that hamper competition. Do you really think poor people are lobbying for more favorable regulations regarding off shore accounts and tax credits for Exxon??
Report Post »turkey13
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:40pmLeave these folks alone – they have a tough job keeping all those printing presses running 24/7 printing new money to keep the country going! They don’t even have time to go home to visit the wives or see their childre so they need some female companship and to unwind.
Report Post »South Philly Boy
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:40pmThe Fed Govt GETS TOO MUCH MONEY
Report Post »Magyar
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:39pm….”You won’t believe what this treasure investigation reveals….”
Honey, I‘d believe every and anything about the government especially under this Head lice ’n Chief—- Free everything including taxpayer’s money—
Report Post »lylejk
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:39pmCan’t wait to see what happens when they triple the number of Treasury workers due to Obama care; not. lol
What a joke. Time to go to a flat tax and give the IRS the boot. :)
Report Post »Mil Mom
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 9:01pm@lylejk
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:39pm
Can’t wait to see what happens when they triple the number of Treasury workers due to Obama care; not. lol
What a joke. Time to go to a flat tax and give the IRS the boot. :
Report Post »***
“Like” times 20
MonkeyBeagle
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:35pmWe have a criminal government, its unsustainable. All the way to the top, corruption is driving our government. The good people in Congress dont even have the numbers or the guts to enforce the contempt charge. History will judge us all harshly, if there is a history to be had.
Report Post »AIDANMAN
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:31pmso as long as you ask to get scr**** and set you price they pay you… if you don’t want to do it .. that rape you and tell you , you deserve it….
I am the definition of a battered spouse? where’s the help… am i now a minority victim group?
Report Post »Brad Wesselmann
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:10pmThe thing that gets me is that the D.C. District Attorney, the man Holder appointed to look into security leaks and wrongdoing at the department of justice is the guy who thought people using public funds to look for and pay for hookers at the Treasury is the one who didn’t prosecute the activity. How is that for justice?
If they think they have no one to be accountable to, they have no faith in God and no morals for which to guide their behavior. I don’t think they will be listening to Jonah either, prepare!
Report Post »Mil Mom
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 9:08pm@Brad Wesselmann
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:10pm
The thing that gets me is that the D.C. District Attorney, the man Holder appointed to look into security leaks and wrongdoing at the department of justice is the guy who thought people using public funds to look for and pay for hookers at the Treasury is the one who didn’t prosecute the activity. How is that for justice?
If they think they have no one to be accountable to, they have no faith in God and no morals for which to guide their behavior. I don’t think they will be listening to Jonah either, prepare
Report Post »***
I was praying this morning and God sent me to Isaiah 41 especially verses 14-24. Read it and be heartened! It was written to Israel, but as a Christian, My Lord, is a child of Israel, and I’ve been adopted into His family! How about you! Verse 24 is our Hope of Change!
Countrygirl1362
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:06pmSounds like business as usual to me. Congress, FDA, FBI all do the same thing, so why should the Treasury be any different. I think this is what the military would call SNAFU.
Report Post »Mil Mom
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 9:12pm@Countrygirl1362
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:06pm
Sounds like business as usual to me. Congress, FDA, FBI all do the same thing, so why should the Treasury be any different. I think this is what the military would call SNAFU
Report Post »***
Sure wish we could “Courts Martial” the whole cabal and start over!
rightwingheroes
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:02pmBig government running wild, who would of thunk?
Report Post »silentwatcher
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 2:00pmignorance of the law is no excuse for violating it. protecting the guilty by removing their names from the public inquiries is conspiracy from their ownership. not terminating their employment for violations of policy and the law is acceptance of their actions. this is another example of a house that needs a good ‘spring cleaning.’ of course, our gov’t continues to give the appearance of tolerance of screwing the public of their hard earned tax dollars. if nothing changes this november,,,we are all screwed, because it will all fall apart.
Report Post »HorseCrazy
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 1:58pmnothing new just more corruption from a bloated out of control government and nothing will happen to the corrupt as usual
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 1:55pmThey need to raise taxes so they can get better lookin hookers……
Report Post »bdandsl
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 1:51pmWhy am I not surprised?
Report Post »JUSTANOTHEROPINION
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 1:50pmSeems to me jail time is necessary. We have the Fox watching the Hen house for us as indicated by the charges not being persued. What are they afraid of coming to light with prosecution testimony.
Report Post »Mil Mom
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 9:17pm@JUSTANOTHEROPINION
Posted on July 16, 2012 at 1:50pm
Seems to me jail time is necessary. We have the Fox watching the Hen house for us as indicated by the charges not being persued. What are they afraid of coming to light with prosecution testimony
Report Post »***
To repeat what I wrote on CNS news’ story on Gen Boykin, “While they (the military) were fighting wars, they didn’t expect us to open the door to the hen house, elect a “fox in chief” and have him hire a team of chicken chefs”. Unfortunately that seems to be exactly what happened!