FBI Launches Fraud Hotline in San Diego

The FBI, in the wake of bribery convictions of two ex-judges and a prominent attorney, announced this week that it has instituted a hotline for people in San Diego to report allegations of governmental corruption.

Robert Walsh, special agent in charge of the FBI office, said the FBI will investigate all reports of corruption in local, state or federal government.

The 24-hour hotline (888-FBI-FRAUD) will provide an outlet for people who might be afraid to report corruption by their bosses or colleagues or are unsure of how to make such a report, Walsh said. Similar hotlines have been used in other cities.

“Corruption is a crime conducted in secrecy,” Walsh said. “The corrupt official, by virtue of position, has considerable discretion and may easily conceal corrupt decisions and actions.”

After the federal conviction Friday of ex-Judges G. Dennis Adams and James Malkus and prominent attorney Patrick Frega, prosecutors repeatedly stressed that the case does not mean that San Diego’s court system is corrupt.

Still, the trial revealed that a number of attorneys and court workers had long known of the close relationship between Frega, Adams, Malkus and ex-Judge Michael Greer, who earlier pleaded guilty, but had kept quiet.

Also, an investigation by the California Commission on Judicial Performance of the same allegations uncovered an easygoing attitude on the part of some San Diego judges toward letting attorneys pick up greens fees, dinner tabs and other small items.

William A. Howatt Jr., presiding judge of the San Diego County Superior Court, said that since the commission began its investigation, San Diego judges have reevaluated their relationships with attorneys, particularly how much socializing is proper. “The judges are reacting very carefully and very cautiously,” Howatt said.

Robert Fellmeth, a law professor and ethics expert at the University of San Diego, congratulated U.S. Atty. Alan Bersin for pursuing the case despite criticism that he is an outsider who does not understand the informal ways of San Diego. Outsiders often uncover corruption that local authorities overlook, he said.