The Federal Crime of Public Corruption

A person is guilty of “public corruption” when they breach public trust and abuse their position as a federal, state, or local official along with their private sector accomplices. Therefore, when a government official, whether he or she was elected, appointed or hired, is in violation of federal law when he/she, demands, accepts, solicits or agrees to receive anything of value in return for being influenced in the performance of their official duties or for making a favorable decision, then they are guilty of public corruption. If you have been accused of public corruption, it is crucial that you contact a seasoned federal criminal defense attorney immediately.

Public corruption can occur on the federal, state, or the local level. Public corruption can include a legislature’s vote, a judge’s ruling, a campaign bribe, a bureaucrat’s contract for work, a judge or District Attorney accepting a  bribe in exchange for an acquittal, or law enforcement can accept money in order to protect and facilitate drug trafficking and other organized crime.

Public Corruption and the FBI

Public corruption is policed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to the FBI, the majority of public corruption falls into five categories: contractual, judicial, legislative, law enforcement and regulatory. Legislative and judicial corruption is self explanatory; they deal with corrupt judges and corrupt legislatures.

Regulatory corruption involves corrupt government investigators, such as the type that would be assigned to corporate scandals. Contractual corruption involves any form of illegal persuasion in relationship to the distribution of government contracts. For example, a construction company could pay off a government employee in order to give them a government contract. There are a number of ways that law enforcement corruption can occur, any form of paying off or otherwise swaying the police in order to further ones ends would suffice.

Law enforcement corruption accounts for more than one-third of the public corruption cases investigated by the FBI. Public corruption can have an impact on every aspect of how we live, from what laws are passed, to what verdicts are handed down, to who gets into office, to how well our borders are protected to the funding for our schools.

Los Angeles Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer

Public corruption is a federal crime, if convicted you could face years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines. Contact a Los Angeles federal criminal defense attorney from Kaye, McLane & Bednarski, LLP, today for your defense!

Contact a Los Angeles federal criminal defense lawyer from our firm for a free initial consultation.