CIETC Is an Onion

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070122/NEWS05/701220330/1001/RSS01

“Drake University law professor Robert Rigg describes the CIETC scandal the way he does all federal conspiracy investigations: It's like an onion.

"You peel back a layer," Rigg said. "You start on the periphery of people who might have minimal contact and keep working toward the people at the top."

Federal prosecutors began to chop up that onion last week, but it could be months before eyes stop watering among those connected with the former Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium.

Government authorities unsealed a 26-page indictment last week charging four people associated with CIETC with counts that include conspiracy, fraud, embezzlement and obstruction. A fifth person, former CIETC chief operating officer John Bargman, is cooperating with authorities under a plea deal that will net him less than four years behind bars.

The news that CIETC players had expected for some time brought mostly silence from others whose names came up in the scandal. Four prominent former CIETC board members, all of whom were probed and publicly criticized during the investigation, last week kept their heads down and their mouths closed.

Federal authorities seemed to encourage such behavior.

U.S. Attorney Matthew Whitaker stressed without further explanation on Tuesday that the CIETC investigation is ongoing and more charges could be filed.

Lawyers say it would not be unusual for federal prosecutors to convene a new grand jury to review additional allegations - either against the same defendants or against new people whose names would be uncovered if fresh information emerges. But any such move likely would come weeks or months down the road.

"It's not uncommon for someone who's facing federal time to suddenly become very cooperative with the government and go, 'Oh, by the way, you don't know that this also happened...' " Rigg said. "And that will trigger another round of grand juries and another round of indictments."

Three of the four people who have been indicted - former CIETC accountant Karen Tesdell, former Iowa Workforce Development deputy director Jane Barto and former Des Moines City Councilman Archie Brooks - are scheduled to appear Thursday in federal court, where they will be formally charged and then likely released. Former CIETC chief executive Ramona Cunningham, who now lives in Louisiana, will make a similar appearance on Feb. 1.

Lawyers connected to the case either declined to discuss it publicly last week or did not return telephone calls. Among the others who took steps away from the post-indictment limelight:

- The agency's recently renamed board postponed a meeting last Thursday in which the only major topic on the agenda had been tips for responding to public questions about the indictments. The meeting is now scheduled for today.

- Dan Albritton, former CIETC board member and co-owner of a boat with Cunningham, failed to show up at a board meeting of the Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino the day after the indictments came down.

Albritton, who was paid by CIETC as a consultant even while he served on the board, was the only major CIETC figure who refused to answer questions during last year's hearings before the Iowa Legislature's Government Oversight Committee.

- Tom Vlassis, an admitted "rubber stamp" during his term as a CIETC board member, was the only Des Moines City Council member who missed an event last week at the Central Iowa Homeless Shelter. The shelter has proposed to build a bigger facility east of Keosauqua Way.

"My personal attorney and city attorney have both told me I shouldn't make any comment at all, and I'm going to follow their advice," the councilman said Tuesday.

Vlassis, who has worked on the council for more than 17 years, has acknowledged that he allowed Cunningham to place his name on a CIETC credit card in 2002. The card was intended for reserving hotel rooms and airline tickets for business-related trips, but agency financial records show Cunningham charged thousands of dollars in unexplained purchases.

Vlassis has said he did not check the card's statements for roughly three years.

- Ako Abdul-Samad, a state legislator who served on the CIETC board while the agency allegedly misspent nearly $180,000 intended to go to his own nonprofit group, also declined to comment Tuesday, except to say: "I said from the beginning that I should have done more. ... Now I am just going to cooperate fully and let the investigation take its course. We have a judicial process. I believe in that process and I want it to work."

- Similar thoughts came from Polk County Supervisor John Mauro, another former CIETC board member, who stayed out of public view even as FBI agents questioned his colleagues.

The Des Moines Register learned Tuesday of federal authorities' plans to interview four of the five supervisors - all except Mauro - apparently so investigators could confirm the county's intentions behind a series of grants to CIETC. Roughly $34,000 of the money was misspent on bonuses for CIETC employees - at the county's urging, according to a memo allegedly authored by Brooks.

Mauro and Brooks both have questioned the authenticity of the document, which reportedly goes against written resolutions approved by the county board.

Mauro on Wednesday said he welcomes further scrutiny in the hope that all CIETC concerns eventually will be put to rest. "Keep digging and get it over with," he said. "Quite honestly, the people want it to be over. They want it done."

Sources familiar with the CIETC investigation say the public may have to wait months for new legal developments or for more details about the allegation in the indictment that CIETC employees did yard work for Cunningham, scheduled private card games and made Friday afternoon casino trips on agency time.

Grand jury members apparently heard a host of such stories in testimony from a number of current and former CIETC employees. But defense lawyers for the people charged haven't yet seen that transcribed testimony and therefore don't know any details about how the government plans to back up its indictment.

A long process is only just beginning, Rigg said.

"You never know what's going to happen over there," he said. "It just depends on where everybody feels the need to drive the case."“

Register reporters Jason Clayworth and Lee Rood contributed to this article.