crime

Modern Continental giant of the Big Dig cops criminal charges, files bankruptcy


The long expected criminal charges in the Mass Pike's mightily botched Big Dig project have finally landed on the project's major contractor Modern Continental Corp (Mod Con is the irresistible abbreviant). The company reacted yesterday by filing for bankruptcy.
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10 Mass Pike collectors charged with toll theft


The AP is reporting that Massachusetts state police are charging ten current and former toll collectors of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority with theft of tolls. A Suffolk District Attorney is quoted as saying that the charges are the result of a seven month long investigation. The toll collectors were taking anything between $20 and $150 per shift. 1129 words  read more »

"No probe because we don't know what it would turn up" US Congress


You've got to love the candor of these villains! Politico newspaper in Washington DC reports June 17 p1, p19 under the headline "Loan probe called Pandora's Box" that the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives say they won't be calling for an investigation into Friend of Angelo loans "because they didn't know what it might reveal."
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Chutzpah award to Vince Fumo - ethics at the Pennsylvania Turnpike


You wouldn't read it in a work of fiction, it would be too far-fetched. Nothing however is too absurd in Pennsylvanian government, it seems.

Vincent Fumo the most notoriously corrupt politician in the state who shortly will be spending his days in US Court facing no less than 139 charges of public corruption is - he claims - sponsoring ethics reform at the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

We aren't making this up.

Here it is on his website:  read more »

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Florida Governor backs Turnpike - vetoes House speaker Rubio favors for supporter


Florida Governor Charlie Crist has vetoed corrupt legislation pushed through the legislature by House speaker Marco Rubio - legislation he admitted would protect the gasoline franchise on the Turnpike of a patron and supporter Max Alvarez.
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NJ GSP plaza super gets three years for theft of $11k coins from ACMs


Joseph Fischbach, a toll plaza superintendent on the southern part of the Garden State Parkway has been sentenced to three years in jail after pleading guilty to stealing over $11k in tolls.

A judge in state superior court also ordered Fischbach to repay the money he stole.

He was arrested in May 2007 after an investigation established he was regularly taking coins from the coin vaults of automatic coin machines.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-04-26

Mass Turnpike's former chair & CEO Matt Amorello charged with self-dealing


The Massachusetts Ethics Commission has charged former Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA) chairman and CEO Matt Amorello with altering the Turnpike's sick pay benefits rule to his personal benefit on the day before he announced his retirement in July 2006. The Commission says Amorello changed retirement rules under which he was entitled to $15k of sick leave compensation to a rule which provided him with $75k. 767 words  read more »

Orlando grand jury not to press criminal charges but criticizes political manipulation


Central Florida state's attorney Lawson Lamar said today that a Grand Jury he impanelled to consider corruption charges against staff and board members of the Orlando Orange County (Toll) Expressway Authority (OOCEA) will not be pressing any criminal charges. Instead they will merely present criticism of political fund raising and other dubious practices at the toll agency.
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Envirofraud - unscrupulous road haters threaten mobility by distorting the science


Air pollution scaremongering long been used by environmental groups to block the road building needed to alleviate congestion - even though the resulting stop-&-go and idling traffic worsens emissions. In many US metro areas air quality data have been misused by environmentalists and their friends in the regulatory agencies to bar all lane additions - except for HOV lanes. And they are wastefully empty.
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Fumo on the Pennsylvania Turnpike - with friends like this... COMMENT


State senator Vincent Fumo was quoted at the weekend as saying of the Pennsylvania Turnpike under the present arrangements: "(It) is what it is, and I think it works very well." (Harrisburg Patriot-News 2007-09-08)  read more »

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Epoxy company indicted for manslaughter in Big Dig death - CORRECTION ADDED


Powers Fasteners Inc, the Brewster NY based supplier of epoxy for ceiling anchors in the Massachusetts Turnpike's Big Dig tunnels has been indicted on a charge of manslaughter. Massachusetts attourney-general Martha Coakley announced the charge today. A Suffolk County grand jury has issued the indictment.
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Concrete company settles Big Dig charges with guilty plea and $125m


A company supplying 'off' concrete to the Massachusetts Turnpike's Big Dig is settling with the state of Massachusetts and the US for up to $125m but six fired staff are being prosecuted individually for criminal conspiracy and fraud. 1011 words  read more »

Three toll collectors on Florida's Turnpike arrested for $13k thievery


The Florida Highway Patrol says that three toll collectors working at toll plazas of Florida's Turnpike in Broward County north of Miami have been arrested an charged with theft. The three work for Faneuil Group which provides toll collection services to the Turnpike Enterprise.

Charged were:

- Shaun Baugh, 23 a supervisor at the Hollywood Boulevard toll plaza, accused of thieving $7,400
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How much money can tolls and private capital provide - ARTBA disinformatzia


Peter Ruane of the DC road builder lobby ARTBA had a letter in the Wall Street Journal (July 9) belittling the potential contribution of tolls and private capital, and he claimed USDOT endorsement. He chided the Journal editorial writers saying private capital for roads "is not the panacea you proclaim," continuing: "An August 2006 U.S. 1674 words  read more »

Lofty talk of integrity of integrated highways belied by pork-mongering


The likes of US congressmen James Obertsar and Peter DeFazio talk loftily about the need to "preserve the integrity of our integrated national surface transportation systems". And they have assailed state law allowing concessionaires to "circumvent the planning process."
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Faneuil Group operator at SunPass wires herself $240k


Sharon Taffe, 38, an operator at the SunPass customer service center attempted to steal $240k by sending her own bank account several huge phony "refunds." She worked for the Faneuil Group which is under contract to Florida's Turnpike to run customer service including maintenance of SunPass electronic toll accounts.
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Orlando toll chairman used toll authority for political fundraising - former spokesman


Allan Keen the former chairman of the Orlando Orange County (Toll) Expressway Authority (OOCEA) constantly used his position at the authority to raise election funds for Republican candidates. That was the thrust of testimony given to state investigators by Bryan Douglas, former marketing director and spokesman for OOCEA.

The testimony was reported in Orlando Sentinel Apr 26. 458 words  read more »

Penn Pike's CEO Brimmeier charged with serious misbehavior by colleagues


Timothy Carson vice-chair of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission says that the Turnpike may have been a haven for patronage and boondoggles in the past but that's all history now. The Pittsburgh Tribune quotes him: "We're not your father's turnpike."

In truth the patronage and boondoggles are bigger and more blatant than ever.
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Orlando toll corruption investigator dead - boss says killed self


Scott Pignone, assistant state attorney in charge of investigations into corruption in Orlando killed himself this morning according to his boss district state attorney Lawson Lamar.

Just last week Pignone gained indictments against Ron Pecora, former marketing and PR consultant to the Orlando toll authority and Doug Guetzloe, an anti-toll activity who was paid $107,500 in hush money by the toll authority in a scandal that has rocked the authority the past six months, leading to the departure of the authority chairman Allan Keen.

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Two indicted in Orlando toll bribery scandal


Anti-toll activist Doug Guetzloe who was paid $107,500 in hush money by the Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority (OOCEA) was today indicted by a grand jury on two counts of perjury, and the man who paid him on behalf of the toll authority Ron Pecora, PR consultant to the authority was indicted on a charge of bribery and providing unlawful compensation. The charges are only indirectly related and are likely only the beginning of a series of other charges in the corruption affair that has unfolded in Orlando.  read more »

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