FBI taking a harder look at public corruption

Sam Skolnik

Monday, April 16, 2007 | 7:32 a.m.

In recent years the Las Vegas office of the FBI brought us the dazzling spectacle of a quartet of Clark County commissioners who bribed and money-grubbed their way into local infamy.

Recognizing that there's more work to be done, the local FBI office has formed a Public Corruption Squad, its first unit dedicated to investigating claims of wrongdoing by public officials and those who do business with them.

As part of their growing emphasis on public corruption, the FBI is also trying to formalize a stronger working relationship with Metro Police.

The squad was formed in June. After a nationwide search, the FBI recently made Special Agent Richard Beasley, a Las Vegas native who was serving as the unit's interim chief, its permanent supervisor.

Bureau officials are reluctant to say exactly how many people are working in the squad, which also handles civil rights investigations.

But according to Beasley, there has been a "significant increase" in the number of agents working on public corruption cases with the unit. FBI squads typically have eight special agents.

The reasons for the new emphasis are clear, Beasley said in an interview with the Sun.

The years long probe and subsequent convictions of former County Commissioners Dario Herrera, Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, Erin Kenny and Lance Malone in the so-called G-Sting bribery and political corruption case, opened a big door for tipsters.

"Las Vegas has always been a cash town. Having a lot of money here is nothing new," Beasley said. "But after the (G-Sting) investigation, we had a flood of information coming into the office about a lot of different things. The time was right."

Beasley, 45, might be the perfect person for the job.

He grew up here. He graduated from Bonanza High School and received an accounting degree from UNR. An Eagle Scout, he attends church weekly with his wife and kids. He doesn't gamble.

Perhaps more important , Beasley is a 21-year veteran of the bureau and has a background in public corruption cases.

While stationed in Los Angeles, he was involved in the FBI's "Operation Big Spender" investigation in the early 1990s, which eventually netted the corruption convictions of more than two dozen Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies.

Beasley moved back to Las Vegas in 1998 and became the bureau's bank robbery coordinator.

The Public Corruption Squad, which includes agents with different experience levels, focuses on allegations of corruption among legislators, judges and law enforcers, Beasley said. The unit also looks at compliance and other government contracting issues .

Beasley declined to comment on any specific ongoing probes, but he said the squad has more than 20 active cases , investigations that have made it past a cursory look.

David Staretz, chief division counsel and spokesman for the Las Vegas FBI field office, noted that in bigger and more complex cases, the bureau can quickly bring in more investigators and surveillance specialists to work with the squad's full-time agents, analysts and support staff.

In addition to bolstering its ranks, the FBI hopes to form a multiagency public corruption task force, Beasley said, to better share information and resolve cases.

As part of this effort, Beasley said, the bureau has sent a formal proposal to Metro Police, which details how the two agencies would work together on cases.

The effort, Staretz said, would mean the agencies would work together when warranted, including occasionally out of the same office.

Clark County Undersheriff Rod Jett, the second in command, said Metro is reviewing the proposal and should decide within two or three weeks whether it'll sign on .

"We want to make sure that we can live with the agreement," Jett said. "As an independent agency, we want to make sure that we maintain the right to make our own decisions."

Jett said one possible stumbling block could involve any effort by the FBI to mandate that Metro dedicate a certain number of detectives to work on public corruption cases. Metro does not have a unit dedicated to handling such investigations, he said.

Instead, they typically fall to the agency's criminal intelligence unit, which primarily handles longer-range police investigations into crimes such as money laundering and narcotics trafficking.

Jett said Metro did not see the FBI's proposed arrangement as encroachment , and said the two agencies have enjoyed good working relations since Bobby Siller took over as the special agent in charge of the Las Vegas office in 1995.

The original idea for a bulked-up public corruption unit at the FBI was devised by the assistant special agent in charge of the Las Vegas field office, Bill Woerner.

Woerner said that soon after he transferred from the bureau's Memphis, Tenn., field office in 2005, he visited with prosecutors and community leaders and asked them where they thought the FBI needed to devote local resources.

They told him that corruption among politicians and other public officials was a big deal here, and that such cases were not being sufficiently addressed. He decided a stand-alone squad was needed. Previously, public corruption cases were handled by the white-collar crime unit.

"Any time you have rapid growth and rapid development," Woerner said, "it's just the right environment for public corruption."

Woerner said he hoped that a formal agreement with Metro would be the beginning of a larger area task force, ultimately including agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

Although multiagency cooperation may be ideal, Beasley said, he recognizes the importance of the FBI's role in these cases.

"There's a lot of mistrust out there," he said. "We're one of those checks to make sure that people are doing what they're supposed to be doing. A lot of people see us as the answer."