The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "abuse of public funds" ...
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Ohio Attorney General: Price of Corruption
WBNS-TV (Columbus, Ohio) revealed a pattern of corruption inside the state's highest law enforcement office including cronyism, misuse of state funds and property, improper use of campaign funds, ethics violations and cover-up. The reporters found that the Attorney General had used campaign funds to rent a condominium for two of his friends/employees that was later tied to sexual harassment,alleged crimes involving state vehicles and the hub for cronyism. Their reporting revealed that the Attorney General created a "transition fund" as an unregulated 501 c4 non-profit account. Through law enforcement, the station learned that this fund funneled at least $2,000 in inappropriate payments to the Attorney General's friend/employee/condo-mate.
Tags: Ohio Attorney General's Office; corruption; 501 c4 non-profit; cronyism; abuse of public funds; misappropriation of funds; abuse of power
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Scandal At UMDNJ
"A series of investigative and enterprise stories into how the University of Medicine and Dentistry of new Jersey violated the public's trust- which uncovered widespread fraud and abuse at the nation's largest public health sciences university, ranging from the payment of illegal kickbacks to cardiologists for patient referrals, to inside deals that threatened a bio-research lab deemed crucial to the security of the New York metropolitan area. The stories led to federal and state investigations, dozens of resignations, likely indictments, and a governor's task force now seeking to restructure the university."
Tags: university; dentistry; health science; New York; bio-research; slush fund; money;
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Policing Force
Reporters examine Southwest Washington police departments' failure to track and discipline officers who use excessive force. Problem officers abuse their authority, and then public funds are used to settle the legal claims against them. Citizens were injured by officers who already had histories of brutality.
Tags: law enforcement; police; police brutality; excessive force; open records
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Public Protection, Private Abuse
This series revealed how a costly state-funded program for dangerous developmentally disabled adults called the Community Protection Program is putting its own clients at risk of abuse and neglect in the name of protecting the public. The state is paying private residential companies to provide 24-hour supervision of 381 clients at an average annual cost of $93,000 per person while providing little oversight of how public dollars are spent.
Tags: abuse; neglect; Community Protection Program; developmentally disabled; corruption
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New Jersey's Pension Peril
This four-part series investigates the state of New Jersey's beleaguered pension system. The authors discovered a concerted effort by government insiders to cripple the public pension system through generous giveaways, financial gimmickry and outright abuse. Gross mismanagement cost the fund $18 billion dollars in less than 2 years.
Tags: pension; pension reform; fraud; state government; pension system; Open Public Records Law; pension payments; corruption
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Phoenix travel
The Republic's investigation revealed that City of Phoenix employees and their supervisors had been frivolously spending public money on travel and junkets that had little, if any, direct benefit to the city and its taxpayers. Abuses were caused in part by poor city policies fraught with loopholes that made it easy for unscrupulous workers to take advantage of the system.
Tags: City of Phoenix; public funds; corruption; scandals; fiscal abuse; finances; public spending
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Killed By Parolees; Did Cornejo & Sons Contribute Illegally?; BOE settlement hidden
City Hall: Mayoral candidate's hidden history of domestic violence complaints; fraud and abuse in publicly funded job training program; misuse of travel funds by city officials; City Hall contract tampering; improper donations by a major city contractor. Parollees: More than two dozen Kansans had died at the hands of parolles in the past four years. Nearly, two-thirds who were killed were on at least their second chance at parole; more than a third of the parollees had broken contact with their parole officers before their arrest; and the state made little effort to find parollees who disappeared. School District: the Wichita school district kept a teach on the payroll eight years after the first complaints about is conduct with young teenage girls, they cloaked its settlement of his rape victim's lawsuit in secrecy.
Tags: City Hall; Parolees; Board Of Education; Kansas Legislature; Department of Corrections; Ethics Commission; Sexual Harassment; Bill Warren; Campaign Finance
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Under the Influence
A Camas Magazine investigative series "chronicles the ongoing controversy of a public/private partnership so faulty that it seriously threatens the fiscal, political and civic health" of Spokane. The partnership, known as River Park Square, was the developer of an upscale shopping mall. The stories reveal that the private party in the partnership - Spokane's most powerful family, the Cowleses, owners of the Spokane Review and the local NBC station - covered up the faults of the project by abusing media power. The construction of the shopping mall was financed "with a $23 million loan from the federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agency and $32 million of tax-exempt bonds secured by city parking meter revenues and a limited pledge of general fund revenue." The result: today the new mall is almost empty and facing bankruptcy, and the city and the taxpayers are losing money.
Tags: BOOK; SERIES; city government; business; Securities Exchange Commission (SEC); stocks and bonds; litigation; lawyers; litigation; IRS; tax rules violations; real estate; land development; poverty; Washington public records law
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Betrayal of Trust?
The Chronicle of Higher Education examines the reasons for the "perception, held by some, that American colleges and universities are hooked on securing money at any cost." The story focuses on a controversial act of Iowa State University, which violated a deceased widow's wishes by selling instead of maintaining 240 acres of land received under the widow's will. The article also looks at the misspending of millions of dollars left to the University of Florida foundation by a wealthy supporter, and reveals "wide-spread abuses by fund raisers for California State University at Fullerton."
Tags: universities; higher education; fund-raising; gifts; foundations; public interest; scholarships; finance; money; wills
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City Agency Feasting On Public Funds
Through five articles the Denver Post tracks improprieties in the Denver Parks and Recreation Department. An analysis of expenditures exposed $180,000 in food spending in 18 months, abuses of travel vouchers and vacation time, and contractual nepotism. Two top Parks Department employees were replaced as a result of the investigation.
Tags: Denver; Parks and Recreation Department; misuse of city money; nepotism; audit