OKLAHOMA CITY -- A multi-million dollar kickback scandal on county road equipment purchases has touched 67 of Oklahoma's 77 counties, federal sources said.
The investigation has involved three years of work by federal agents, scores of tape recordings and the cooperation of a woman clerk, who exchanged for evidence while seeking leniency on income tax charges.
'The number of present and former commissioners and suppliers who have participated in these kickback schemes is staggering,' says U.S. Attorney David Russell. 'I anticipate that before it is over there will be in excess of 200 persons charged.'
To date more than 70 have either been convicted or agreed to guilty pleas.
'Numerically,' Russell said, 'this may well be the largest public corruption case in the history not only of the state of Oklahoma but of the United States.'
The continuing headlines as commissioners resign almost daily has been an irritant to Democratic Gov. George Nigh, who faces election next year in his bid to become the state's first chief executive to succeed himself.
U.S. Attorney Bill Price says the inquiry might never have been profitable had it not been for lumber firm clerk Dorothy Griffin who was confronted by an Internal Revenue Service audit that questioned her income.
Price said Ms. Griffin 'broke' and told how she and commissioners would split county payments through fake invoices on materials and equipment.
Ms. Griffin made 110 evidentiary tape recordings for the FBI. She admitted from the witness stand that she exchanged sexual favors with some commissioners and suppliers in Texas.
'At the time I was working for the government,' she explained, 'and I said and did anything to get them to open up and get information for the government.'
Ms. Griffin's work helped federal agents 'break' Midwest City, Okla., vendor Guy Moore into talking. Moore later testified he had made more than 8,000 kickbacks in 28 years.
