They're Baaaack, Part 1
Those of us from Mahoning County know about corruption. The entire area has always had a bad reputation as a mob connected area. Saturday Evening Post called us “Bombtown, USA”. Sometimes I will take visitors on “The Mob Tour” to show various landmarks of nefarious repute including gathering places, business fronts, locations of the various car bombings and shootings ranging from the late Calla Mar restaurant to the corn field where one of the syndicate leaders was murdered a few years back.
The degree of this dirty business could not have happened without a complete corruption of the area's legal and political system. As a lawyer, I can tell you that it was difficult to make a living in a system where justice was governed by fee drawers, kickbacks, fee couches, and judicial and prosecutorial payoffs. It wasn’t that the system was corrupt. It was how deep the corruption went, including such innocuous entities as the local water and sanitary district, school boards, and local dentists, that was surprising. It was everywhere: in the county commissioners office, the county sheriff’s office, the county engineers office, the county coroners office, (that one is hard to believe, but true), the county prosecutors office, not to mention untold dirty judges at all levels of the judiciary and the lawyers that practiced in them. It was rampant and unchecked.
I learned quickly that in order to get my clients a level playing field in court, if certain lawyers were involved on the other side, I had to get my clients to other lawyers in the “group” that had “access”. We all knew who they were. When I personally had some legal problems involving a fight over a substantial sum of money, my lawyer told me that even to get my case heard, I would need to provide $10,000.00 cash in an envelope delivered to a another lawyer. That was just to get me through the door. Because of that, he was unwilling to take the case.
The corruption bled into business. Untold amounts of city, state and federal funds went into businesses that were never built, studies that were never done, with the borrowers “bankrupting” themselves for money that was “improperly spent”, translated: stolen. The granddaddy of the business corruption was the Phar Mor scandal and its founder, Mickey Monus, who bilked his investors and business partners out of tens upon tens of millions of dollars in the largest private swindle in the history of the United States. Some of the wealthiest people in Pittsburgh and Youngstown were stung by the swindle, resulting in the aggressive prosecution and incarceration of Mr. Monus, and the loss of thousands of jobs throughout the United States as the Phar Mor stores closed one after another. Mr. Monus learned “its not nice to fool mother nature”. The Phar Mor scandal was particularly tragic for this area because, on its face, it was supposed to represent the rebirth of Youngstown after the closing of the steel mills. This area had a lot of its reputation riding on the success of Phar Mor.
Then came the Feds, and over a two year period, lawyer after lawyer, judge after judge, county official after county official were disbarred, convicted, jailed, and disgraced. At least one individual committed suicide. Several judges dodged the bullet by dying of natural causes. The Mahoning County “crème de la crème” was wiped out. The crown jewel in the Fed sweep was the conviction and imprisonment of Congressman Jim “beam me up” Traficant. Then the Feds were gone.
Last night, my family and I went out to dinner……
The degree of this dirty business could not have happened without a complete corruption of the area's legal and political system. As a lawyer, I can tell you that it was difficult to make a living in a system where justice was governed by fee drawers, kickbacks, fee couches, and judicial and prosecutorial payoffs. It wasn’t that the system was corrupt. It was how deep the corruption went, including such innocuous entities as the local water and sanitary district, school boards, and local dentists, that was surprising. It was everywhere: in the county commissioners office, the county sheriff’s office, the county engineers office, the county coroners office, (that one is hard to believe, but true), the county prosecutors office, not to mention untold dirty judges at all levels of the judiciary and the lawyers that practiced in them. It was rampant and unchecked.
I learned quickly that in order to get my clients a level playing field in court, if certain lawyers were involved on the other side, I had to get my clients to other lawyers in the “group” that had “access”. We all knew who they were. When I personally had some legal problems involving a fight over a substantial sum of money, my lawyer told me that even to get my case heard, I would need to provide $10,000.00 cash in an envelope delivered to a another lawyer. That was just to get me through the door. Because of that, he was unwilling to take the case.
The corruption bled into business. Untold amounts of city, state and federal funds went into businesses that were never built, studies that were never done, with the borrowers “bankrupting” themselves for money that was “improperly spent”, translated: stolen. The granddaddy of the business corruption was the Phar Mor scandal and its founder, Mickey Monus, who bilked his investors and business partners out of tens upon tens of millions of dollars in the largest private swindle in the history of the United States. Some of the wealthiest people in Pittsburgh and Youngstown were stung by the swindle, resulting in the aggressive prosecution and incarceration of Mr. Monus, and the loss of thousands of jobs throughout the United States as the Phar Mor stores closed one after another. Mr. Monus learned “its not nice to fool mother nature”. The Phar Mor scandal was particularly tragic for this area because, on its face, it was supposed to represent the rebirth of Youngstown after the closing of the steel mills. This area had a lot of its reputation riding on the success of Phar Mor.
Then came the Feds, and over a two year period, lawyer after lawyer, judge after judge, county official after county official were disbarred, convicted, jailed, and disgraced. At least one individual committed suicide. Several judges dodged the bullet by dying of natural causes. The Mahoning County “crème de la crème” was wiped out. The crown jewel in the Fed sweep was the conviction and imprisonment of Congressman Jim “beam me up” Traficant. Then the Feds were gone.
Last night, my family and I went out to dinner……
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