Former Red Light Camera Ceo Pleads Guilty To Bribery, Fraud In Ohio

revgen · Jun 23, 2015

Former red light camera CEO pleads guilty to bribery, fraud in Ohio
Redflex ex-CEO Karen Finley also to plead guilty in Chicago case in August 2015.

A former CEO of Redflex, the embattled red light camera vendor, has pleaded guilty to bribery and wire fraud in Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio. In December 2013, Ars reported on red light cameras nationwide, and in particular, Redflex's four cameras in the central California town of Modesto.

Karen Finley was indicted on related charges in August 2014 in Chicago. She pleaded not guilty, and had been set to go to trial in October 2015. But new court filings show she is now scheduled to change her plea in August 2015.

As prosecutors wrote in a statement on Friday:

From December 2005 to February 2013, Finley served as CEO of a red light camera enforcement company. As part of her plea agreement, Finley admitted that, between 2005 and 2013, she participated in a scheme in which the company made campaign contributions to elected public officials in the cities of Columbus and Cincinnati through a consultant retained by the company. According to admissions made in connection with her plea, Finley and others, including another executive of the company, agreed to provide the conduit campaign contributions with the understanding that the elected public officials would assist the company in obtaining or retaining municipal contracts, including a photo red light enforcement contract with the City of Columbus. Finley also admitted she and her co-conspirators concealed the true nature and source of the payments by the consultant’s submission and the company’s payment of false invoices for “consulting services,” which funds the consultant then provided to the campaigns of the elected public officials.

The Ohio scheme sounds very similar to the one that Finley was indicted for in Chicago.

In Chicago, in addition to Finley, government prosecutors also indicted John Bills, former managing deputy commissioner at the Department of Transportation, and Bills’ friend Martin O’Malley, who was hired as a contractor by Redflex.
According to that indictment, O’Malley himself was paid $2 million for his services as a contractor, effectively making him one of the company’s highest paid workers. Much of that money was then funneled to Bills, who used it for personal gain. Via Redflex employees, Bills also acquired a Mercedes and a condominium in Arizona.

A May 2014 affidavit written by an FBI special agent suggests that Bills likely used some of this money to purchase and store a boat, buy a car, pay for an addition to his Michigan cabin, pay for his girlfriend’s mortgage, pay his own mortgage, pay his kids’ schools, and hire a divorce attorney over the course of several years.

By October 2014, O’Malley pleaded guilty—Bills is scheduled to go to trial on October 26, 2015 in Chicago.

Neither Redflex nor Finley’s attorneys immediately responded to Ars’ request for comment.
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Why am I not surprised? It's suburban and urban America's version of the "speed trap".

Chillbongo · Jul 2, 2015

The immediate question that comes up after reading something like this:

Where the hell else is this going on? I know its rampant. It's not the exception, it's the rule. The exception is getting caught.

Highway contracts, rail contracts, city lighting contracts, I mean the list goes on and on. This is the tip of the iceberg.

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Former Red Light Camera Ceo Pleads Guilty To Bribery, Fraud In Ohio

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