Arkansas Blog

How did John Flake escape legal action on this? (Bet he checked off the days on a calendar until the statute of limitation passed...if it has???)

What's happened to Nick Wilson? How much time has/did he serve. Any mentions of a pardon. Has Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System been put under control of an independent (if such thing is possible) commission?

PERS is under an "independent commission". It does have a couple of politicians (State Treas. and Auditor) and lobbyist (Don Zimmerman, Municipal League) on it, however. This real estate deal was certainly questionable when it was first undertaken. Now, it has come full circle, it may be worth a lawsuit by retirees to question the breach of fiduciary duty of those involved. This may not be just a question of misuse of taxpayer money, it is trust money from retired employees!

>>Now, it has come full circle, it may be worth a lawsuit by retirees to question the breach of fiduciary duty of those involved.<<

Would "those involved" be subject to individual fines and restitutions?
.

Flake is part of the Arkansas Good Old boys club. He should have been stripped of his real estate credentials and disgraced. Several in the Good Old boys club were heard to remark too, "poor old Nick." Of course the Democrats let Nick waltz out of the state capital on his own sweet time even after he had been convicted of the felony.

Sounds like the current Republi-credo to me, "I get it first and tax-free because I can. I deserve it because increasing my wealth makes the economy look healthy and I shouldn't have to pay taxes because I'm wealthy. Laws are just to keep the peons in line, especially the liberal rabble-rousers"

Doc, I find it incredibly ironic that you deem it the Republi-credo when everyone touching this deal - Flake, Wilson, PERS board, etc. has been at the center of the AR Demo power structure. It arguably took a Repub gov and some competition at the capitol to bring down even a part of it.

Too bad it never got Flake. Of course, he probably played both sides.

Understanding how small our community is - certainly most reasonable people would agree that this deal looks kinda stinky.
Whomever recommended this loser to the board should be help accountable to the pensioners - We understand inherent risks, yet this stinky buddy-deal should allow a closer second look.

I would go back and review how did it come to light, how much commision was generated for the real estate brokers, did someone recommend this to the Pension as a good investment and why and what do they say now?

The time line should be easy to track and ask good questions of all involved as most of us hope it leads to a healthly light exposing the truth.

Commercial Real Esate prices have mostly exploded in value over the past several years ..follow the truth, follow those that recommended this investment, follow those that profited from it. It is always possible this was a good idea gone bad..yet.....if it quacks like a duck...............quack -quack

Theo,

Just the first page of google

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/30/iraq.audit/
"Nearly $9 billion of money spent on Iraqi reconstruction is unaccounted for because of inefficiencies and bad management, according to a watchdog report published Sunday.An inspector general's report said the U.S.-led administration that ran Iraq until June 2004 is unable to account for the funds...."
Bremer, in a written response included in the report, said Bowen's report failed to recognize the difficulties of operating in wartime.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1734939,00.html
"Iraq was awash in cash - in dollar bills. Piles and piles of money," says Frank Willis, a former senior official with the governing Coalition Provisional Authority. "We played football with some of the bricks of $100 bills before delivery. It was a wild-west crazy atmosphere, the likes of which none of us had ever experienced."
The environment created by the coalition positively encouraged corruption. "American law was suspended, Iraqi law was suspended, and Iraq basically became a free fraud zone," says Alan Grayson

Halliburton's Deals Greater Than Thought By Michael Dobbs Washington Post Thursday 28 August 2003
Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, has won contracts worth more than $1.7 billion under Operation Iraqi Freedom and stands to make hundreds of millions more dollars under a no-bid contract awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to newly available documents.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040704/news_mz1b4nation.html
Under a $33 million contract from the Pentagon, the exiles were placed on the payroll of Science Applications International Corp....As members of the newly formed Iraqi Reconstruction and Development Council, or IRDC, the exiles were stationed in key government positions while still on SAIC's payroll. . . SAIC's government-related revenue hit $5.4 billion last year - a $1 billion jump from the previous year. . . .Pentagon hired SAIC to put the exiles on its payroll and administer the program under a no-bid contract. . . . problems have arisen in a few of SAIC's Iraqi reconstruction contracts.The police and army training, for instance, has so far failed to produce a strong security force. The TV project suffered from SAIC's lack of experience in mass media operations. And despite the success of a few alumni of the IRDC, the group never lived up to its intended role as a backbone for the U.S. occupation.

And Theo, just yesterday

http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=529602
he US government cannot account for 190,000 weapons issued to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to an investigation carried out by the Government Accountability Office.According to the July 31 report, the military "cannot fully account for about 110,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 80,000 pistols, 135,000 items of body armour and 115,000 helmets reported as issued to Iraqi forces." . . . that was over half of the rifles, pistols, body armour and helmets supposedly given to the Iraqi's

ALL THIS MAKES FLAKE AND WILSON PIKERS IN COMPARISON, BUT JUST AS SMELLY! CORRUPTION SHOULD NOT BE TOLERATED, REPUB DEMOCRAT, INDEPENDENT! BUT THE EXAMPLES SET BY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION MAKE MOST OTHER GRAFT PALE IN COMPARISON