by Deb Cupples | The U.S. Justice Department reports:
"Maureen Njideka Edu, a/k/a Maureen N. Scurry, 42, of Potomac, Md., was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington on Feb. 20, 2009, for conspiring to solicit and accept bribes and to deprive the United States and the Ex-Im Bank [Export-Import Bank of the United States] of her honest services, as well as substantive counts of bribery, honest services wire fraud and filing a false tax return....
"According to the indictment, Edu worked for the Ex-Im Bank from May 2000 to October 2004 as a business development specialist covering Africa and focused on sub-Saharan Africa, which included the West African nation of Nigeria. During the course of her work, according to the indictment, Edu was introduced to Nigerian businessmen who were seeking to buy certain products and services from a Kentucky-based technology company in a deal worth approximately $44 million."
"The Nigerian businessmen were seeking financial support from the Ex-Im Bank to support the business deal. The indictment alleges that the Nigerian businessmen agreed to pay Edu a bribe of $173,500, with an initial installment of $100,000, in return for her promise to perform official acts to assist the Nigerian businessmen and their company in obtaining loan guarantees and other financial support from the Ex-Im Bank.
"The indictment also alleges that, on Feb. 24, 2004, one of the Nigerian businessmen wrote a letter to a bank in Nigeria captioned 'Facilitation Fees to Maureen Scurry,' in which the businessman asked that $100,000 be, 'transferred to Miss Maureen Scurry of US-EXIM Bank to enable her to facilitate our guarantees with Ex-im [sic] Bank.'" (DoJ)
Facilitation fees? What a harmless-sounding way to label a bribe -- like spraying perfume on a pile of dog poop.
I agree with Big Daddy Pollitt from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, who said: "If you got to use that kind of language about a thing, it's ninety-proof bull."
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