From Democracy Now: An internal probe has uncovered a major bribery, sex and drug abuse scandal at the Department of Interior. Government officials were found to have collected lavish gifts from the oil companies they were supposed to be regulating. Some officials engaged in sex and drug use with oil industry executives. Inspector General Earl Devaney says the Bush administration-era Interior Department has had “a culture of ethical failure.” From 2002 to 2006, one-third of fifty-five staffers at the Denver office of the Mineral Management Service accepted bribes from oil companies. Is there a too-cozy relationship between top administrators in the Interior Department and the Justice Department? Even though two low-level employees have been charged and have plead guilty, the Interior Department's Inspector General Devaney recommended that, in addition, two high-level administrators also be charged. Ignoring his recommendation, the Justice Department chose to let both off the hook.
From Mother Jones Magazine:"The Minerals Management Service is the arm of the Interior Department charged with collecting some $10 billion a year in royalties from oil and gas companies. The IG tells us about two MMS oil marketers, Stacy Leyshon and Crystel Edler, who became known among oil executives as the "MMS Chicks." Between 2002 and 2006, each received more than $2,700 in gifts on more than 60 occasions from oil companies, including meals, booze, lodging, and golf outings. Leyshon, who slept with two oil company employees, operated a sex toys side business known as "Passion Parties" (think Tupperware parties, but with dildos) and bragged that it paid more than her day job at MMS.
Lucy Querques Denett, the former associate director of the minerals revenue management department, was eager to look out for her aides. Oil royalty auditor Bobby Maxwell, who gained national attention in 2006 for his $50 million False Claims Act case against the department and oil company Kerr-McGee, told me he had wanted to audit contracts signed between oil companies and the department's problem-plagued Royalty In Kind division, which collects $4 billion a year in oil and gas instead of cash royalties. But in 2002 the RIK department refused to hand over the contracts, Maxwell says, and Denett told him, "Leave it alone." He says she never explained why RIK couldn't be audited.
For more see: Consumerist and Pogo
Video Length 2 min 38 sec
From Mother Jones Magazine:"The Minerals Management Service is the arm of the Interior Department charged with collecting some $10 billion a year in royalties from oil and gas companies. The IG tells us about two MMS oil marketers, Stacy Leyshon and Crystel Edler, who became known among oil executives as the "MMS Chicks." Between 2002 and 2006, each received more than $2,700 in gifts on more than 60 occasions from oil companies, including meals, booze, lodging, and golf outings. Leyshon, who slept with two oil company employees, operated a sex toys side business known as "Passion Parties" (think Tupperware parties, but with dildos) and bragged that it paid more than her day job at MMS.
Lucy Querques Denett, the former associate director of the minerals revenue management department, was eager to look out for her aides. Oil royalty auditor Bobby Maxwell, who gained national attention in 2006 for his $50 million False Claims Act case against the department and oil company Kerr-McGee, told me he had wanted to audit contracts signed between oil companies and the department's problem-plagued Royalty In Kind division, which collects $4 billion a year in oil and gas instead of cash royalties. But in 2002 the RIK department refused to hand over the contracts, Maxwell says, and Denett told him, "Leave it alone." He says she never explained why RIK couldn't be audited.
For more see: Consumerist and Pogo
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