According to the NY Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Barstow, Wal-Mart paid millions of dollars in bribes to Mexican authorities to expedite the company's rapid growth in the country, then conducted an internal investigation that served as a cover-up. Wal-Mart's policy on ethics states, "Never cover up or ignore an ethics problem," but presumably there's a footnote that allows for exceptions "when the company really needs to bring cheese sausages and trampolines to the people of Mexico." And there's reason to believe the company's culture of corruption would be right at home here in New York. more ›

The bizarre case of the woman accused of stalking Yankees GM Brian Cashman exploded into the tabloids last week and yesterday, the Daily News revealed that Louise Neathway (sometimes referred to as Louise Meanwell) claimed she was pregnant with the married Cashman's baby and had an abortion. Now the News' rival gets word from Neathway's mom about her apparent bluff. more ›

Assemblyman William F. Boyland Jr. was indicted for a second time yesterday, accused by federal prosecutors of soliciting $250,000 in bribes in exchange for political favors. Earlier this month Boyland Jr. was acquitted on other corruption charges, and he used court-appointed attorneys in his defense, which cost taxpayers $125 an hour. They got him off that time, and so why mess with perfection? Boyland Jr. will once again be passing along the costs of his alleged corruption to his constituents. Cut him some slack, he's broke! more ›

NY Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. was his acquittal on corruption charges earlier this month, but the party is about to end, because the feds just arrested him this morning on new corruption charges. U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch says Boyland solicited more than $250,000 in bribes and took thousands for performing official acts for bribe players. Boyland, who represents Brooklyn's 55th District, allegedly told one undercover agent, "I got a middle guy by the way ... I gotta stay clean ... I got a bag man..." more ›

State Assemblyman William Boyland was grinning and pumping his arms in the air after being acquitted of corruption charges in federal court yesterday. Boyland, who represent Brooklyn, had been indicted, along with powerful State Senator Carl Kruger, on charges of bribery and accepting money from hospital executives in exchange for state contracts. But a jury found Boyland not guilty and a juror told the Daily News that the feds “didn’t give us enough evidence to convict him and send him to jail." more ›

So that story that the secretive Tea Party-backing Koch Brothers were so anxious to kill? There was a good reason for that. The Bloomberg Markets article is now here and has lots of the juicy bits that you figured had to be there if the Koch's were going after it before it went live. Bribes, unethical business practices, and millions in petrochemical equipment sales to Iran, anyone? more ›

A former hospital CEO was convicted of bribing state officials yesterday. Jeffrey Rosen, who oversaw hospitals in Queens and Brooklyn, "was found guilty of funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars from his medical-care empire to two assemblyman and a state senator, who prosecutors say helped him win state loans and secure other favors from Albany," according to the Wall Street Journal. more ›

New York's restaurant letter grades have been around for a year now, most restaurants have been graded and a majority have gotten themselves A's. But along with the rise of letter grades (and the increase in fines for the city's coffers that have come with them) something else has been on the rise: attempted bribery. Yesterday the police arrested a restaurant owner in Queens for trying to pay off an inspector with $500. His was by no means the first such case this year. more ›

How much is a good letter grade worth to a restaurant? Apparently, if they are smart, more than $300 bucks. After not making any arrests for attempts to bribing health inspectors in 2009, the city's Department of Investigations busted four people in 2010 and have already made four more arrests this year! more ›

Four years ago, a jury found a Montessori school teacher guilty of having sex with a 13-year-old student back in the 1990s and guilty of bribing another underage student with whom she was having a relationship. Ever since then, Lina Sinha had been trying to get the convictions overturned. Yesterday, an appeals court gave her mixed news: They threw out the bribery conviction but upheld the sodomy conviction. more ›

On New Year's Eve, video caught two "Hasidic" men breaking into a Diamond District jewelry shop and cleaning out the safe—just like in Snatch! The men, Mahaveer Kankariya and Atul Shah were actually hired by the owners to fake the robbery for insurance money, but until this point had been allowed to go free pending sentencing. That is, until Kankariya allegedly asked his bail bondsman, "Is there any way I can bribe the judge?" This is exactly what they warn you about in the very first chapter of Bribery for Dummies. more ›

Thanks to arrests over fraud and corruption in a number of Brooklyn day-care centers, Health officials have been forced to shutter almost two dozen centers for safety violations. Another 17 centers may be on the chopping block if they fail to address violations in the next 45 days, and the shut downs have left over 700 Brooklyn families scrambling to find new options. Last month's "Operation Pay Care" bust accused city workers accepting bribes from a ring of Russian child-care workers who frequently violated teacher-child ratio and permit rules. And added on top of increased wait lists for pre-K programs, Brooklyn parents may have to resort to other neighborhoods, other boroughs, or home schooling for pre-K. more ›

Who knew the day care circuit in the city had such a seedy underbelly? Federal prosecutors have arrested eleven people, including seven New York City officials from three city agencies, for an $18 million day-care bribery ring [PDF]. The group allegedly "fraudulently obtained more than $18 million intended to help needy parents with public assistance for day care services" by bribing workers to bill the city for children who were not enrolled in the day care subsidy program. And of course, no bribery ring is complete without a sinister nickname. They called themselves "The Congregation." more ›

Having clearly exhausted every other option of luring local children into their charter school, officials at JHS 126 in Greenpoint have resorted to a foolproof method of recruitment: cash bonuses! The school has posted signs promising a "$100 reward" for any student who convinces another to attend one of three charters in the area for at least one term. more ›

The Brooklyn couple charged with scamming $59,000 out of Medicaid while having over $2 million in the bank may also have been sleazy landlords. Ariel Soudry and his father, Abraham, are currently suspected of overcharging renters at eight LES apartments. Gothamist commenter HughGass claims Soudry was his former landlord and calls him "a real piece of $hit. This is his scam real estate company that rents out rent stabilized units in his father's building (maybe grandfather's) at illegally inflated market rents. If you had a dispute with him over something stupid he'd go to the basement and turn off your power." Another anonymous source told the Daily News the same thing. more ›

As expected, the former chief crane inspector in NYC pleaded guilty late yesterday to charges of bribery. Former Dept. of Buildings official James Delayo agreed to a 2-6 years plea deal, admitting to selling crane licenses and tests, and pocketing over $10,000 in bribes in the process. Prosecutors explained that among several petty bribes, Delayo dealt largely with Long Island-based crane company, Nu-Way Crane Service, who paid him $3,000 to provide advance copies of the DOB's crane-licensing exam. But Delayo's lawyers insist he never put anyone in danger, and had nothing to do with the two major crane collapses in 2008 which resulted in nine deaths. Crane operator Michael Pascalli and Nu-Way Crane Service head Michael Sackaris are also charged with bribery in the case. more ›

Today in court a former top crane inspector, arrested when crane collapses killed nine in 2008, is expected to plead guilty to accepting bribes. Collecting $10,000 over eight years, James Delayo didn't just doctor inspections, he's accused of skipping them altogether. However, the Daily News reports that charges against him involve "smaller mobile cranes," not the towering machines that fell two years ago on the Upper East Side and in Midtown. more ›

According to papers filed by the defense lawyers, James Cromitie, the alleged mastermind behind May's Bronx synagogue terrorist plot, had been offered up to $250,000 by a government informant. The NY Times reports that the papers detailed how the informant, identified as Shaheed Hussain, encouraged Cromitie to identify targets and even recruit others on the terrorist mission. The defense lawyers want the trial thrown out under entrapment rules, claiming Cromitie wouldn't have attempted the bombing without Hussain's influence. more ›

Yesterday, the U.S. Attorney's office charged the former president of Park Avenue Bank with 10 counts including fraud, embezzlement and bribery in a scheme to pass off millions in TARP funds as his own. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, "[Charles] Antonucci is the first person ever to be charged with attempting to defraud the TARP and we expect he will not be the last." more ›

Two years after a collapsing crane killed two workers on the Upper East Side, the crane company’s owner—in addition to an employee and the company itself—is expected to face charges of manslaughter. When two cranes came crashing down in 2008, the Manhattan DA launched an investigation of James Lomma that turned up evidence the machinery wasn’t properly repaired after being struck by lightning. "In answer to the question about how I feel about Jimmy Lomma being taken away in handcuffs, I say it's a start and about time,” said one of the workers' fathers. “It will never bring my son back...but it might finally be the beginning of paying real attention to the safety of workers who risk their lives to feed their families." more ›

Federal prosecutors are investigating the Board of Elections' $50 million contract with ES&S, a Nebraska company contracted to supply the city with its first electronic voting machines. The machines were due to be set up by the September primaries, but may not be in place due to the probe. The Post reports that US Attorney Preet Bharara has served subpoenas to determine if the Board of Elections was bribed to choose ES&S over Dominion Voting of Toronto. more ›

A former Queens Assemblyman who resigned after being indicted for accepting bribes in the form of "consulting" fees was sentenced to six years in prison. Anthony Seminerio, 74, pleaded guilty to one charge of fraud after investigators alleged that he had taken up to $2 million in bribes, established a shell company to handle the "consulting" money, and was caught on tape accepting $25,000 from an FBI agent posing as a real estate developer. more ›

Yesterday, the NY Attorney General's Organized Crime Task Force and NYPD raided a number of homes and business in Staten Island, Brooklyn, NJ, Pennsylvania, and Nevada, arresting 22 people from two investigations dubbed "Operation Pure Luck" and "Operation Night Gallery." The charges, according to Cuomo's office, stem "from the operation of lucrative loan sharking and gambling activities closely controlled by organized crime"—the Gambino and Luchese crime families. more ›

The Post reports that at least six Department of Buildings employees "will be arrested later this month, along with about two dozen Luchese crime-family captains, soldiers and associates." Ooh, another mob sweep. Apparently the Buildings inspectors, two of whom are "full-blown Luchese associates," "were videotaped taking bribes at construction sites, and some were seen dealing cocaine and prescription pills while on duty" and "lined their pockets by ignoring violations or expediting construction and building work permits." And the revelations emerged from a 2007 case in NJ, where some members of the Luchese crime family "ran a staggering $2 billion-a-year gambling operation and supplied drugs and cellphones to Bloods gang members in state prisons." Guess the DOB's new code of conduct is coming in handy. more ›

About 100 protesters stood outside the home of Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano yesterday and called for his resignation, joining a public plea the day before from NJ Governor Jon Corzine. Despite being arrested as part of the massive corruption bust Thursday, the mayor has insisted he will stay in office continuing "business as usual." Corzine said if Cammarano and other officials refuse to step down, he will seek measures to force them out of office, adding, "If they want to get back into politics once they are proven innocent, I think that's fine." Cammarano was busted for taking $25,000 in bribes and his ambitious climb to become Hoboken's youngest mayor last month lead many to believe he will not go down lightly. A longtime NJ legislator said of him, "Some kids grow up and want to be the center fielder for the Mets. Some grow up and want to be mayor of their town. That was him. He was reveling in it." Meanwhile one spot getting a boost from the scandal—Hoboken's Malibu Diner, the scene of the crime. A manager told the News, “It’s not the kind of publicity we want, but business has picked up." more ›

Former State Senate majority leader Joseph Bruno was indicted on 8 counts yesterday for allegedly taking in $3.2 million in "consulting fees" that were actually payments from various parties who wanted the once powerful legislator's influence. Bruno, who spent 32 years in the State Senate, 13 of them as Majority Leader, said the FBI had conducted "a three-year fishing expedition that smells really, really bad and it really stinks," and vowed, "After being hounded for three years, I am being indicted on a prosecutor’s sleight of hand. I’ve been a fighter. And I don’t plan on changing now.” more ›

Federal prosecutors say that eleven Con Edison supervisors (ten current and one retired) forced a contractor to give them over a $1 million in bribes so they'd approve payments on projects like clean-up from the 2007 steam pipe explosion near Grand Central Station. And what's more, the feds have wiretaps of them bragging about it. Classy! more ›

Talk about chutzpah: The NY Post reports a Georgia residents "offered two cops Jet season tickets and $2,000 apiece if they wouldn't arrest him for DWI." Kyeko Henderson was pulled over in Hell's Kitchen, after making an "unsafe and aggressive" left turn from West 44th Street onto Eighth Avenue. When the cops went ahead with arresting him, Henderson "promised...two seasons' worth of Gang Green tickets" (he claims he's related to someone on the team). Now the 23-year-old, whose blood alcohol was almost twice the limit, faces DWI and bribery charges; he told the Post, "I'm just going to get the hell out of New York now." more ›

After longtime Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio's arrest on bribery charges, the State Assembly apparently held a secret meeting to discuss, per the AP, "tougher rules over disclosure of outside income by lawmakers." more ›