Word: scheme
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Former federal judge Frederick B. Lacey, after a seven-week probe of Iraqgate, deemed it "arrant nonsense" to suggest that the Bush Administration derailed a probe of a scheme to funnel billions of dollars to Saddam Hussein. If there had been any corruption, he said, "I would have smelled it." Attorney General William Barr declared the case closed. But Bill Clinton may yet reopen...
Launched 18 months ago by U.S. Attorney Jay Stephens, the probe initially focused on what looked like a bizarre money-laundering scheme involving the House post office, which has been rocked by charges of drug use, mismanagement and embezzlement by employees. Last September, after pleading guilty to embezzlement and misuse of public funds, the post office's former chief of staff Joanna O'Rourke agreed to cooperate with investigators. The inquiry was expanded after she told federal prosecutors that the post office frequently cashed campaign checks that purported to be for stamps...
...SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION FINALly dropped the gavel in the Salomon Brothers trading scandal. In its toughest enforcement action in the case, the SEC filed a civil lawsuit against the two former Salomon executives who allegedly engineered the 1991 scheme to submit phony bids in U.S. Treasury auctions. The government is seeking unspecified fines and court injunctions against former managing directors Paul Mozer and Thomas Murphy. Mozer and Murphy, who both contest the suit, also face possible criminal indictments. But not all of the SEC's actions had as much bite. In a settlement that some observers criticized as toothless...
...congress, the Yeltsin team also floated a plan for a "constitutional agreement" with parliament. The scheme called for a 12- to-18-month "stabilization" period during which the powers of the President, the parliament and the government would be redefined. Since Yeltsin would undoubtedly have to impose limitations on the parliament to make the plan work, rebellious deputies seem unlikely to buy it, even if the President agrees to shake up his Cabinet in the bargain...
...daily in the capital, from all sides of the political spectrum. Whether the messenger is a top government official, a parliamentary leader, a member of an opposition party or an ordinary Russian with a gut instinct, the message is always the same: dark forces are at work devising a scheme to take power and install a dictatorship...