For the lawyers who specialize in this kind of thing out there, I'm interested in your read of this. So Tommy Kontogiannis becomes involved in the late 1990s in only his latest scheme, as an ATM to a bunch of on-paper businesses in North Carolina. What's it about? New vehicles for money laundering? Get rich quick scheme gone flop? He was already at this point apparently under investigation in New York for being part of a massive Queens local school board corruption scheme. So are his North Carolina activities just a random opportunity that fell in his lap? A vehicle to launder money he's getting illegally elsewhere - or for others? And when does Nifong get on the scene? There seems to be a pattern of Kontogiannis engaging in criminal activity and then offering rather successfully to inform on it to get a deal. But in the North Carolina case, which came first? And can he simply engage in unlimited criminal activity if he throws a few tidbits to his law enforcement handlers now and then? And do the Feds and law enforcement also have an interest in portraying Kontogiannis as a more valuable informant than he actually is? And did his apparent relationship with law enforcement preceed his conspiring with Congressman Cunningham et al in the defrauding of the U.S.? That would be a rather embarrassing detail, wouldn't it? After all, no sign that any FBI investigation of Cunningham began until after the San Diego Union Trib stories on him, beginning in 2005. So Kontogiannis has a deal with presumably the FBI that allows him to commit plunder against the U.S. time and again while throwing them information? And then pretty much get off for a fine - for at least the second and possibly the third or fourth time?

Posted by Laura at September 2, 2007 09:06 AM