LEHIGH VALEY MORNING CALL: An entrepreneur with multiple Allentown properties pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to bribe an unnamed Allentown official with campaign contributions, food and drink in an effort to obtain preferential treatment for his business interests in the city.
The charge against Ramzi Haddad, 45, of Bethlehem is the first filed in connection with an ongoing FBI investigation in Allentown. It describes a wider pattern of corruption in which the Allentown elected official, named only as Public Official No. 3 in court documents, allegedly worked with campaign staff to identify businesses with a financial stake in the city and hit them up for campaign donations in exchange for favors.
The same official went to great lengths to conceal the alleged corruption, “destroying records, conducting sweeps of government offices for electronic surveillance, and procuring disposable ‘burner phones’ that he believed would be difficult for law enforcement to monitor,” according to court documents… (more)
