GRAFT IN NEW YORK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 307, 30 December 1942, Page 5

GRAFT IN NEW YORK

FOUR-YEAR INQUIRY ENDS MUNICIPAL MISCONDUCT BY ' OFFICIALS (Reed. 9.30 p.m.) New York. Dec. 28. j A four-year inquiry into charges of ( official corruption in New York City and the borough of Brooklyn, the ( longest and most sweeping study of municipal misconduct in American } history, resulted in tines and restitu- < lions of over 2,000,000 dollars, against ; which the costs of the inquiry were only 1,000,000 dollars. The New York Times’ special cor- j respondent, says the report, based on , the testimony of 3390 witnesses, re- . vealed lurid accounts of gangland bribery of policemen and city officials in murder and kidnapping cases and blackmail rackets, also the "rigging" of contractors’ bids, defrauding taxpayers of over 1,000,000 dollars. The inquiry started in an atmosphere that required night pairols to guard the prosecutors’ headquarters, and alarm-wired tile rooms containing incriminating evidence affecting gang- I sters and racketeers. The report, disclosed that manv 1 public officials earning large salaries 1 did not keep bank accounts and lived far beyond their incomes without * direct proof of the source of the t money. The report makes nineteen reconi- c mendations designed to close <-xisting < loopholes in the laws whereby city i employees are immune from various types of prosecution. 1