During the 1980s fifty-seven of Mississippi’s 410 county supervisors from twenty-six of the state’s eighty-two counties were charged with corruption. The FBI’s ploy to catch the criminals was code-named Operation Pretense.
Ingenious undercover investigation exposed the supervisors’ wide-scaled subterfuge in purchasing goods and services. Because supervisors themselves controlled and monitored the purchasing system, they could supply sham documentation and spurious invoices. Operation Pretense was devised in response to the complaint of a disgruntled company owner, a Pentecostal preacher who balked at adding a required ten percent kickback to his bid.
Detailing the intricate story, this book gives an account of the FBI’s stratagem of creating a decoy company that ingratiated itself throughout the supervisors’ fiefdoms and brought about a jolting exposé, sweeping repercussions, and a crusade for reform.
The case was so notable that CBS’s Mike Wallace came to Mississippi to cast the
60 Minutes spotlight on this astonishing sting and on the humiliated public servants it exposed to public shame.
The conditions that gave rise to such pervasive malfeasance, the major players on both sides, the mortifying indictments, and the push to finish the clean up are all discussed here.
In the wake of Operation Pretense were ruined careers, a spirit of watchdog reform, and an overhauled purchasing system bared to public sunshine. However, this cautioning book reveals a system that remains far from perfect.
This narrative report on the largest public corruption scandal in Mississippi history serves as a reminder of the conditions that allow such crime to flourish.
Sobre o autor
James R. Crockett is professor emeritus at the University of Southern Mississippi and adjunct professor of accountancy at the University of Mississippi. He is author of Power, Greed, and Hubris: Judicial Bribery in Mississippi; Hands in the Till: Embezzlement of Public Monies in Mississippi; and Operation Pretense: The FBI’s Sting on County Corruption in Mississippi, all published by University Press of Mississippi.
Mais ebooks do mesmo autor(es) / Editor
228.009 Ebooks nesta categoria
