Atlanta’s airport is the most corrupt in the country (although in fairness Detroit may be a close second).
In Atlanta if you want to open a restaurant you donate to a political campaign and pay the former mayor’s daughter. The airport’s former manager was fired for being insufficiently corrupt, and then the city council buried the payments that bought his silence.
The amazing thing is that the FBI has apparently learned that even when they go after corruption, they need to leave the powerful corrupt officials alone and only go after the private sector businesses pressured to give money.
Federal prosecutors have secured a guilty plea to bribery charges for paying an Atlanta procurement official $20,000 for an airport contract. They aren’t releasing the name of the official who took the bribe.
Hayat Choudhary, chief executive of Atlanta Airport Shuttle Services Inc., paid an initial $10,000 bribe to the city procurement official after the city in May 2017 announced a 10-year contract to operate a kitchen/restaurant at the airport’s taxi hold lot building, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.The unnamed official then “instructed Choudhary that he had to pay another $10,000 to receive the contract,” which he paid, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The man says he was trying to do business with the airport, was told he had to pay as a condition of getting the business, so what was he supposed to do? The answer of course is turn down the business and contact the FBI.
Three Atlanta officials have been sentenced to prison for corruption in recent years, someone had to be sacrificed, but Atlanta airport contracting appears to remain corrupt and it’s those who are pressured to pay that are punished in this case, it seems, rather than the ones in positions of power.
Makes me feel even better about the $339 million Atlanta airport pocketed out of the CARES Act.
One has to believe that the FBI is not releasing the name of the bribed person and is squeezing them for info on higher ups that approved/received payment.
I’m 100% sure New York leads in this category.
Maybe they’re just luckier so they don’t get caught. Or maybe it’s like Boston, where the FBI was in on the corruption.
@SeanNY2,
+1
Not why a plea deal from something that occurred in 2017 means ATL is “again” the most corrupt airport.
SeanNY2: It is so easy to slander, but if one is 100% sure; why does one not go to the police with the evidence and report the crime?
“The amazing thing is that the FBI has apparently learned that even when they go after corruption, they need to leave the powerful corrupt officials alone and only go after the private sector businesses pressured to give money.”
Reminds me of UA and Newark
“tlanta’s airport is the most corrupt in the country (although in fairness Detroit may be a close second).”
Aren’t both of these Delta hubs? hmmmm
Quimos, perhaps one is 100% sure but does not have (enough) evidence that is presentable or admissible in a court of law, such as photos, tape recordings, etc.
Is there a political affiliation with these failing cities and corrupt airport operations?
The guy’s name is Mano Smith. From the AJC:
“It is our understanding that Mano Smith was the referenced individual,” a spokesman for Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said on Tuesday morning. “Mr. Smith was officially terminated last week, after several months of suspension — during which he was denied access to city-owned assets and entry to City Hall. In an effort to continue to assist the authorities in their investigation, we do not find it appropriate to comment further at this time.”
Reached at his home on Tuesday, Smith denied the accusation.“That’s innacurate,” he said.
One Trippe they are all Democrats its a liberal Left wing DNC airport and city!!!and then there is the taxi-cab-union payoffs ??? in most major liberal large airport cities……………
B1BomberVB : Then based on what one is 100% sure!, LOL!
Viewing the disposition of the Michael Flynn case, it seems the logical play against federal charges is to donate to the Trump campaign and then get Attorney General Barr to drop the charges against you regardless of evidence or previous guilty plea.
No, the lesson from the Flynn case is that when the Obama admin wants you they will use any pretext to go after you, charge you with bullshit, threaten to go after your son, slander you as a traitor, ignore the law by denying you exculpatory evidence, and do all that with the full backing of the watchdog media and the civil rights apparatus.