OAKLAND CITY COUNCIL | G-Men were not only trolling San Francisco State Sen. Leland Yee, they were also snooping around Oakland City Hall, according to a report Monday in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Oakland Councilmembers Larry Reid and Lynette Gibson McElhaney were approached by an undercover F.B.I agent posing as a rich developer seeking to build in their respective districts, the paper reported.
According to the Chronicle, he specifically expressed interest in building a five-star hotel on Hegenberger Road near the Oakland Coliseum complex. Reid even took the suspected FBI agent on a tour of the property, located in his district.
The FBI, though, may have been targeting Dhar Mann, an Oakland businessman, with connections to the property, who plead guilty last December to defrauding the Oakalnd Redevelopment Agency $44,300.
McElhaney told the paper she wasn’t impressed with the prospective investor’s knowledge of development, while not knowing he was actually an undercover agent.
By MW:
If the FBI could not find anyone, and in fact tons of corrupt creatures, in and/or closely connected to Oakland city government who was willing to engage in criminal activity and/or willing to facilitate various things in exchange for under the table bribes, then most likely the “experts” in the FBI were extremely clumsy in their offers and approaches, and therefore the creatures they approached most likely realized that somebody was trying to set them up.
More specifically, the various Bay governments, and including Oakland city government, are loaded to the hilt with sleazy creatures who are extremely willing to arrange illegal backroom fixes in exchange for under the table bribes. But of course anybody, and including from the FBI, who wants them to take the bait has to do it with enough finesse and sophistication so that they do not suspect they are being set up.
To sum up., Leland Yee was not even the tip of the iceberg in regard to the sleaze and corruption that infests virtually all of Bay area government. However, perhaps the biggest reason he was the only one big boy caught so far caught was that he was stupid. More specifically, most Bay area politicians, and no matter how sleazy they are, are also sophisticated enough to know not to accept a bribe from any Tom, Dick, Harry or total stranger who offers them a deal.
Instead, they will normally get their bribes and make their illegal deals with someone they trust, and such as for instance: one, a well known and politically connected lawyer; or two, someone who has been recommended and approved by one of the local big boys, and such as for instance Willie Brown.
If Leland Yee had done that and taken such precautions, then most likely the FBI would have never been able to make a case against him, and regardless of any criminal activities he had engaged in.
In other words if the FBI ever gets seriously interested in doing something major about the extreme corruption that almost totally controls Bay area government, then it will have to work in tandem with some of the big boys, and including some of the politically connected local lawyers, and who for decades have been working out the illegal backroom fixes in exchange for under the table bribes that controls virtually everything that goes on in our metropolitan area.
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