Shakedown?

[tistic]

It seems a couple of the developers we follow here at UP Nashville have been asked to provide information in support of an investigation of corruption by a third party who approached Streuver and Giarratana about their projects.

The standards of proof and evidence we ought to be concerned about are the ones that operate in the judicial system, not the ones that fly about in the "court of public opinion". It would be a shame if either of these projects were tainted with rumors of corruption because of rumors flowing from a misunderstanding or because of some bogus offer some incompetent third party allegedly made.

If there is any truth to these allegations, it is important that they be aggressively investigated. Our local economy depends upon developers having confidence that their investments will stand or fall based on the merits and not because of undue influence favoring or opposing them in the approval process.

And, btw, our judicial system depends on the Constitutional principle of "innocent until proven guilty". So even the target of the investigation has the benefit of the doubt in my mind, until the facts are in that show otherwise.

I'd like to know that we don't have a problem here in Nashvegas. Hopefully it was just a misunderstanding, as this quote implies may have been the case:

"One of the developers said: 'A. I don't know whether it was a shakedown attempt or B. the person didn't know what he was suppose [sic] to ask for.'"

Larry Brinton reports a shakedown investigation

Nashville City Paper article characterizes the investigation as about possible political corruption

[smeagolsfree]

As I understand this, there is no wrong doing on the part of the developers and that it may be a political figure that is the target of the investigation. I do believe that the developers that may have been approached are men of integrity. I do not want to comment or speculate anymore than that because it is a criminal investigation and some of the players are on this board.

[Richard Lawson]

The developers aren't the target. They may be the alleged victims. Brinton's and City Paper stories are incomplete. The conversations with TG was a sideline to a broader investigation that may seep into the Metro Council. We are working on a story that should be able to give more details, including names if our attorneys will let us.

[tistic]

The developers aren't the target. They may be the alleged victims. Brinton's and City Paper stories are incomplete. The conversations with TG was a sideline to a broader investigation that may seep into the Metro Council. We are working on a story that should be able to give more details, including names if our attorneys will let us.

I tried to make my post clear that the developers aren't the target, but a third party is...

[sleepy]

It'll be interesting to see how this unfolds. Sure hope they root out the bad apple.

In Memphis, nothing gets done without payoffs, or so it's said.

Recent corruption example--the FedEx Forum was supposed to have an additional floor to its parking garage for some mass transit thing. It was never built, but lo and behold it took the people in charge 18 months to figure that out. Now the feds want their $6 million back for the transit funding.

Somebody made off with it, but the taxpayers will cough it up.

[Lexy]

sleepy, that is dirty man. Just plain dirty.

[Hankster]

Thank God we live in a country where political corruption basically is not tolerated, and politicians do pay for their transgressions. While they don't catch everyone, and we all know that corruption does exist, it exists at a far lower level here than most any other country in the world. If someone is at fault here, I hope they are successful in prosecuting him.