GOP congressman Michael Grimm of New York has been taken into federal custody following an indictment of 20 charges for various forms of fraud against the federal government. The charges deal with mail fraud, wire fraud, healthcare fraud, perjury, obstruction of justice, hiring illegal aliens, and aiding and assisting in filing false & fraudulent federal tax returns. By some estimates, the congressman may spend the rest of his life behind bars if convicted of all the charges.
It would appear that the case against him is pretty solid. Authorities were able to confiscate two sets of accounting records used by the congressman to manage a healthcare company called Granny Sayz LLC dba Healtalicious. Since 2007, the congressman handled the payroll operations of the company. The two sets of accounting records he kept were used to prove that he was in fact paying illegal aliens either partially or fully in cash. He paid them from the cash sales the company made which allowed him to underreport earnings and pay less federal and state taxes.
Grimm was also able to fudge numbers so that the company would get a break on their healthcare premiums. In short, he spun an elaborate web to game the system. The whole scheme began to unravel when illegal aliens sued him for unpaid overtime and failure to pay the minimum wage. For his part, he intends to fight the charges and remain in office.
Democrat supporters claim Grimm is indicative of GOP corruption. History does not square with any political ideology leading to corruption as both parties have had members indicted for fraud.