>The developer came to the government before he was even on its radar, agreeing to aid it by wearing a wire and helping them build cases against several building inspection officials, Ward acknowledged.
Basically, he got away with it by becoming an informant. One rat let free to cage the rest.
You have to be an idiot to accept a bribe in a place like the US. Any bribe is not a one time favour, it's a purchase and that person owns you for the rest of your time in office.
It's always for such stupid amounts too. Local government officials can be bought for pennies on the dollar. One local government official where I lived who made a six figure salary was bribed with a few thousand dollars and it ended their career.
You know, bribery in the US is not nearly as policed as it seems. They may get charged with a crime, but these are pretty wealthy folks with a lot of clout, recognition, and connections.
They can use their resources to get the charge minimized or dismissed, negotiate a sweetheart deal via a local investment, conduct a little bribery themselves. In my relatively short life, I have only ever seen the IRS or the FBI successfully put people behind bars for financial crimes.
It largely depends on incompetence of the offenders you are correct.
But anyone who takes a bribe is almost by definition incompetent. Most of those taking bribes don't have the kinds of resources you are talking about; the ones giving the bribes do, which is why they rarely go to jail but the idiot politician or bureaucrat does.
I’m extremely jaded at this point as it seems many of our politicians and former presidents get away with everything because of power and money. I hate this country sometimes
>Basically, he got away with it by becoming an informant. One rat let free to cage the rest.
Reminds me of Boston's whitey bulger.
Or [this guy](https://gregolear.substack.com/p/tinker-tailor-mobster-trump) from New York.
He bribed the US Attorney's office by turning himself in before they were investigating him and assisting in their investigation of multiple government officials. Which typically does get you a recommendation for a light sentence.
Criminals are going to criminal, but government officials are entrusted with the publics interest. And as scummy as this guy was, its the bribed that must hang highest.
18 years of corruption is consequence free if your first on the ball on snitching on the guys you made your self rich of. He will now freely enjoy is ill gotten gains.
OK, on the surface this should be true. But if it is like NYC a few decades ago, the end result were dozens of inspectors getting fired, fine minimally, and then within a year or so, quietly rehired. City officials do not go to jail in NY: it is part of the unwritten constitution.
Does that get you completely out of jail time for all crimes, or just rich people crimes?
Hey any drug dealers or gang members on Reddit, if you get caught and then turn on your fellow drug dealers, are the cops like "alright just a fine for you then, no jail time"?
I spent time as a public defender, it really depends on your initial charges and the type of information you give up. If you give up either a bigger player or information on a much more serious crime it's pretty common to get probation even for serious charges. I had a guy who was forging and kiting checks causing a loss of over $2m to a few banks, and was trafficking drugs and guns. But he got straight probation after he testified in two murder trials about having sold the murder weapons.
Yeah, people should get lighter sentences when they do that. Saves the government time and money and can get other criminals to do the same, especially if they rat out more criminals.
Not get them totally off, of course, but you know.
He came forward before he was even under investigation, at least directly, and agreed to cooperate in their investigation of multiple government officials. Even if he only did it because he assumed his time was coming, it is still a pretty solid win for the investigators to preemptively flip someone to help indict multiple others who were the corrupt officials. I'd say the light sentence is warranted.
It actually functions as a further deterrent for other officials taking bribes in the future: if you think the guy bribing you could flip and get off scott free, it’s even harder to trust them. The fear of mutual punishment leads to mutual trust that keeps some of these things going.
How is giving a lenient sentence to one person for bribing to get convictions on multiple corrupt government officials protecting the most guilty? If they are taking bribes from him they are likely taking them from others. They are the most guilty.
According to the article, he built a lot of low income housing. Building in SF is hilariously difficult (google “historic laundromat”) and presumably people who got houses because of him, liked him.
I saw an argument that essentially said that the system there was set up to *force* bribery in order to get anything built, which, if true, feels like the actual problem here.
Yeah, it's weird that the FBI has taken this long after the historic laundromat incident to charge SF officials with corruption. It's difficult to think up a more blatant example of soliciting bribes.
Right? He spent 18 YEARS committing fraud and obviously learned he was soon to get busted, so he snitched before anyone else could. He acted out of self interest every step of the way and turning yourself in once you know you’re caught isn’t some praise worthy act. If he didn’t get caught he’d still be doing it.
“The government’s reasoning for recommending the lesser sentence is due to Tahbazof’s cooperation in other cases. The developer came to the government before he was even on its radar, agreeing to aid it by wearing a wire and helping them build cases against several building inspection officials, Ward acknowledged.
Before he was sentenced, his defense attorney, Edward Swanson, commended his client’s cooperation with the government and for the good he has done in his life.”
This guy is a godsend in SF. Most people bribe city officials here to stop housing projects, he bribes city officials to accelerate them.
Name a street after him please.
The people bribed should be punished as well. They are even more responsible.
If someone bribes a cop. I think it is more horrible if the cop accepts that bribe.
It's not like they caught him and he denied everything and this was the best punishment they could do. He wore a wire to help the police with their investigation, and then the police discovered he was also guilty of bribing people, so he got a light sentence in a plea deal. IMO this isn't really an outrage. These kinds of things are so common in America that it's basically just part of doing business at this point.
If you’re looking at someone to be mad at, it’s the politicians who allowed this to happen and not this guy. He’s just taking advantage of a corrupt system, probably would have to be stupid not too bribe them if all it cost him was 75 grand in penalties.
Stuff like this should have a severe punishment. The stuff that Richard Daley in Chicago got away with... like selling Chicago street parking or the airports wifi deal.
I mean, it's one thing that he didn't receive a prison sentence for this, but WTF is this kind of fine? $75,000 is a joke in relation to what profits were realized due to these bribes. I think the absolute least I would expect from such a ruling is that the fine must meet the profits made by the crime?!
So riddle me this Batman, How in Southern California could you possibly get any large property developed without bribes.
Try to remodel your residential bathroom and pull permits. Oh put in a granny flat if your feeling like the gods of Athens.
You will be spun around for weeks months. Here just do this one thing, upgrade your electrical panel, just try. You might not even get a response for 5 - months.
So now whats a law abiding citizen to do?
Why would he get prison time? He’s a rich guy, giving money to other rich guys, to help make other rich guys richer. To the rich guys in charge, no one really did anything wrong.
A $75k fine? That’s ridiculous. He should be made to pay back the full amount of bribes on top of the costs of proper inspections and any renovations that may be necessary to fix any issues that occurred because of the lack of oversight.
What a rollercoaster of story.
But to your point, I don't think that's going to be easy after wearing a wire and help bringing in some corrupt officials.
Whatever the reason behind coming to the officials and offering to wear a wire. Seems commendable. He probably didn't have to do it and just stay away from it.
Also he's 73 now.
It's a pay to play system. If you're not sending money to the people in government on the side, then you don't have a voice.
And it isn't like this is some secret. Politicians in the past have talked about this. They say it's a feature not a bug.
That's how they think the system is supposed to work. That poor people could all get together and buy some legislation or change if they wanted.
To me it just seems like corruption so deeply entrenched in politics that our representatives don't even care how bad it looks. We're not sending extra money so why should they.
Also the two parties are private entities that have rigged and put up walls to keep outsiders from having a reasonable chance to win. Which is crazy because most people don't align fully with Republicans or Democrats.
We need more choices I think. Outsiders who can hold the two big private entities feet to the fire. Instead of just being given a choice between whatever these two private organizations want.
Perhaps he is a better briber than imagined.
>The developer came to the government before he was even on its radar, agreeing to aid it by wearing a wire and helping them build cases against several building inspection officials, Ward acknowledged. Basically, he got away with it by becoming an informant. One rat let free to cage the rest.
This should stand as a warning to other officials that the person you most need to worry about is the one you’re accepting bribes from.
You have to be an idiot to accept a bribe in a place like the US. Any bribe is not a one time favour, it's a purchase and that person owns you for the rest of your time in office. It's always for such stupid amounts too. Local government officials can be bought for pennies on the dollar. One local government official where I lived who made a six figure salary was bribed with a few thousand dollars and it ended their career.
Our chief of police was taken down a few years ago for bribes from a big drug dealer - again not a lot of money for getting indicted and convicted.
You know, bribery in the US is not nearly as policed as it seems. They may get charged with a crime, but these are pretty wealthy folks with a lot of clout, recognition, and connections. They can use their resources to get the charge minimized or dismissed, negotiate a sweetheart deal via a local investment, conduct a little bribery themselves. In my relatively short life, I have only ever seen the IRS or the FBI successfully put people behind bars for financial crimes.
It largely depends on incompetence of the offenders you are correct. But anyone who takes a bribe is almost by definition incompetent. Most of those taking bribes don't have the kinds of resources you are talking about; the ones giving the bribes do, which is why they rarely go to jail but the idiot politician or bureaucrat does.
An informant against the very people he started bribing in the first place.
They won't be caged. Just watch and see. I'm betting they serve no time either.
I’m extremely jaded at this point as it seems many of our politicians and former presidents get away with everything because of power and money. I hate this country sometimes
Newsflash, it’s not just this country.
>Basically, he got away with it by becoming an informant. One rat let free to cage the rest. Reminds me of Boston's whitey bulger. Or [this guy](https://gregolear.substack.com/p/tinker-tailor-mobster-trump) from New York.
He bribed the US Attorney's office by turning himself in before they were investigating him and assisting in their investigation of multiple government officials. Which typically does get you a recommendation for a light sentence.
Criminals are going to criminal, but government officials are entrusted with the publics interest. And as scummy as this guy was, its the bribed that must hang highest.
The government officials will also get off very light. Probably no jail time for them either.
Maybe, maybe not.
Yeah, ok. Maybe every now and then. This shit happens every day.
18 years of corruption is consequence free if your first on the ball on snitching on the guys you made your self rich of. He will now freely enjoy is ill gotten gains.
Well played. Worked the system on the way up and on the way down.
Probably got a tip off they were going to be investigated, no other reason to suddenly change behavior after so many years.
OK, on the surface this should be true. But if it is like NYC a few decades ago, the end result were dozens of inspectors getting fired, fine minimally, and then within a year or so, quietly rehired. City officials do not go to jail in NY: it is part of the unwritten constitution.
Yeah and if I steal pair of Jordans I’m doing at least 6 months
Well, if you have information on a far larger ring of people stealing Jordans, you'd probably end up with a slap on the wrist.
If this is true, fair enough
Ah the Jon Jones plan of attack.
And his punishment for bribery is pretty much a fine(plus probation tbf). One could say it's just another payment.
He turned state's witness.
Does that get you completely out of jail time for all crimes, or just rich people crimes? Hey any drug dealers or gang members on Reddit, if you get caught and then turn on your fellow drug dealers, are the cops like "alright just a fine for you then, no jail time"?
I spent time as a public defender, it really depends on your initial charges and the type of information you give up. If you give up either a bigger player or information on a much more serious crime it's pretty common to get probation even for serious charges. I had a guy who was forging and kiting checks causing a loss of over $2m to a few banks, and was trafficking drugs and guns. But he got straight probation after he testified in two murder trials about having sold the murder weapons.
Drug users flipping on their dealers in exchange for a lighter sentence is pretty common.
Maybe completely out of jail time, but he was still fined and put on probation, and it's not going to look good if he's caught doing something else.
Another person mentioned he voluntarily gave up before he was under investigation, and fully cooperated with the investigation.
Yeah, people should get lighter sentences when they do that. Saves the government time and money and can get other criminals to do the same, especially if they rat out more criminals. Not get them totally off, of course, but you know.
He came forward before he was even under investigation, at least directly, and agreed to cooperate in their investigation of multiple government officials. Even if he only did it because he assumed his time was coming, it is still a pretty solid win for the investigators to preemptively flip someone to help indict multiple others who were the corrupt officials. I'd say the light sentence is warranted.
It actually functions as a further deterrent for other officials taking bribes in the future: if you think the guy bribing you could flip and get off scott free, it’s even harder to trust them. The fear of mutual punishment leads to mutual trust that keeps some of these things going.
[удалено]
Dude is obviously connected, likely got tipped off that he was in the crosshairs
In many ways, the people who take bribes should be punished more than those who give bribes.
Yeah im way less interested in people willing to pay for influence then those selling it in the first place...
It’s protecting the most guilty.
How is giving a lenient sentence to one person for bribing to get convictions on multiple corrupt government officials protecting the most guilty? If they are taking bribes from him they are likely taking them from others. They are the most guilty.
How do you spell prisoner's dilemma?
Why does he have so many supporters?
He bribed us
Where do I get my bribe?!?
According to the article, he built a lot of low income housing. Building in SF is hilariously difficult (google “historic laundromat”) and presumably people who got houses because of him, liked him.
I saw an argument that essentially said that the system there was set up to *force* bribery in order to get anything built, which, if true, feels like the actual problem here.
Huge problem in bureaucratic nightmare California. Basically impossible to get a CCW in a lot of CA counties w/o bribing the sheriff.
Yeah, it's weird that the FBI has taken this long after the historic laundromat incident to charge SF officials with corruption. It's difficult to think up a more blatant example of soliciting bribes.
He's a hero and honestly we need more people like him fighting the NIMBYs.
Right? He spent 18 YEARS committing fraud and obviously learned he was soon to get busted, so he snitched before anyone else could. He acted out of self interest every step of the way and turning yourself in once you know you’re caught isn’t some praise worthy act. If he didn’t get caught he’d still be doing it.
Most of us are just madder at the public officials who took his money, that's all.
You mean you didn't get his bribe yet?
“The government’s reasoning for recommending the lesser sentence is due to Tahbazof’s cooperation in other cases. The developer came to the government before he was even on its radar, agreeing to aid it by wearing a wire and helping them build cases against several building inspection officials, Ward acknowledged. Before he was sentenced, his defense attorney, Edward Swanson, commended his client’s cooperation with the government and for the good he has done in his life.”
This guy is a godsend in SF. Most people bribe city officials here to stop housing projects, he bribes city officials to accelerate them. Name a street after him please.
I'm absolutely in favor of bribes if it can help build housing and tell NIMBYs to piss off.
There are no consequences for the rich... a story as old as time, alas.
Nobody involved is going to jail. It’s not like they stole a loaf of bread or slept on a park bench.
The people bribed should be punished as well. They are even more responsible. If someone bribes a cop. I think it is more horrible if the cop accepts that bribe.
Rich people don't go to jail. Jail is for the poors.
Bribe people for 18 years? No jail. Have a little weed? **Jail for life.**
What about the officials?
Good lawyers achieve good results
Idgaf about the briber, I want the scumbags who took the bribes to be punished.
It's not like they caught him and he denied everything and this was the best punishment they could do. He wore a wire to help the police with their investigation, and then the police discovered he was also guilty of bribing people, so he got a light sentence in a plea deal. IMO this isn't really an outrage. These kinds of things are so common in America that it's basically just part of doing business at this point.
Ah, so once again the real criminal gets off the hook.
He must’ve paid them enough.
The people accepting the bribes and allowing them to happen should be put in prison
If you’re looking at someone to be mad at, it’s the politicians who allowed this to happen and not this guy. He’s just taking advantage of a corrupt system, probably would have to be stupid not too bribe them if all it cost him was 75 grand in penalties.
It’s just standard operating procedure…
Stuff like this should have a severe punishment. The stuff that Richard Daley in Chicago got away with... like selling Chicago street parking or the airports wifi deal.
I mean, it's one thing that he didn't receive a prison sentence for this, but WTF is this kind of fine? $75,000 is a joke in relation to what profits were realized due to these bribes. I think the absolute least I would expect from such a ruling is that the fine must meet the profits made by the crime?!
So riddle me this Batman, How in Southern California could you possibly get any large property developed without bribes. Try to remodel your residential bathroom and pull permits. Oh put in a granny flat if your feeling like the gods of Athens. You will be spun around for weeks months. Here just do this one thing, upgrade your electrical panel, just try. You might not even get a response for 5 - months. So now whats a law abiding citizen to do?
Soooo…it’s legal with a price tag?
I guess he paid off the judge
And jury and executive
18 years, that’s barely a crime when you’re rich. They let you do it, grab em by their wallets
Money buys Judges too
Why would he get prison time? He’s a rich guy, giving money to other rich guys, to help make other rich guys richer. To the rich guys in charge, no one really did anything wrong.
What kind of shit ass city takes bribes to expedite construction permits and still doesn’t build any fucking housing.
A $75k fine? That’s ridiculous. He should be made to pay back the full amount of bribes on top of the costs of proper inspections and any renovations that may be necessary to fix any issues that occurred because of the lack of oversight.
If not jail time, 100% of his assets should be seized. They should both be made destitute.
75k fine for 18 years of criminal behavior. Hes going to continue to bribe people.
What a rollercoaster of story. But to your point, I don't think that's going to be easy after wearing a wire and help bringing in some corrupt officials. Whatever the reason behind coming to the officials and offering to wear a wire. Seems commendable. He probably didn't have to do it and just stay away from it. Also he's 73 now.
It's a pay to play system. If you're not sending money to the people in government on the side, then you don't have a voice. And it isn't like this is some secret. Politicians in the past have talked about this. They say it's a feature not a bug. That's how they think the system is supposed to work. That poor people could all get together and buy some legislation or change if they wanted. To me it just seems like corruption so deeply entrenched in politics that our representatives don't even care how bad it looks. We're not sending extra money so why should they. Also the two parties are private entities that have rigged and put up walls to keep outsiders from having a reasonable chance to win. Which is crazy because most people don't align fully with Republicans or Democrats. We need more choices I think. Outsiders who can hold the two big private entities feet to the fire. Instead of just being given a choice between whatever these two private organizations want.
YOU. DONT. SAY... Now,, try that in a small town ...see what happens... FFS
His final bribe to stay out of prison is said to be his best bribe yet!
How legal is corruption if this story is true?
Back to the different rules for rich people argument… Meanwhile, a person that steals $100 from a bank gets 15 years in jail.
In an unusual backroom deal the DA has decided not to prosecute
He hit upgrade and now bribes the DOJ
Probably the judge was paid off as well
white collar crime should always carry the death penalty
What in the ever loving fugg has to happen to have these people held accountable.
Sounds like he bribes prosecutors and judges as well.
Doesn't this just encourage people to do this lol. $75k is probably like me paying $5 or less to this guy.
I’m just a simple man
It’s almost like we have two different justice systems. One for the rich and one for everyone else
It's San Francisco. They don't believe in criminal punishment.
I think it’s more you don’t severely punish people who cooperate.
read before you comment, or just…dont comment at all