MARSHALL BANKS AND James Garvin, by all accounts, had careers distinguished by contributions to the public good, particularly to the needs of D.C. youth. Why, then, were they willing to go along with former D.C. Council member Harry L. Thomas Jr. as he looted for his own use money intended to help these very same children? The question has yet to be answered, but it speaks to a culture with a troubling nonchalance toward wrongdoing. Before the District can “move on,” as its elected officials are wont to proclaim, from the Thomas affair, it needs to confront its own complicity in looking the other way.
Mr. Banks, a Howard University professor, and Mr. Garvin, the general manager of Langston Golf Course, each pleaded guilty to a federal felony charge stemming from their failure to report and their effort to conceal Mr. Thomas’s misappropriation of more than $300,000 in public monies. The two men, who reached plea agreements with federal prosecutors, allowed Mr. Thomas to use their nonprofit dedicated to operating youth programs, Langston in the 21st Century Foundation, as a conduit to funnel D.C. grant monies to organizations controlled by Mr. Thomas. The men, according to the case detailed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, were initially unwitting accomplices; they believed that the money they received from the Children and Youth Investment Trust Corp. and passed on to Mr. Thomas’s organizations would indeed be used to fund youth activities.
Of course, as we now know, Mr. Thomas had other plans for that money — a flashy car, motorcycle and golf vacations — and Mr. Banks and Mr. Garvin soon came to that realization. But they said nothing and, in fact, continued the charade that permitted the swindle. Was it because Mr. Thomas was a friend? Did they not want to alienate a powerful city official? Did they not know how to extricate themselves? Or did they rationalize it was okay because the money their program received, $86,000, was used to fund legitimate youth programs? Their attorney said they could not comment until after their sentencing.
Just as U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. rightly used Mr. Thomas’s guilty plea to send the message that misconduct by elected officials won’t be tolerated, he used the case of Mr. Banks and Mr. Garvin to underscore the responsibilities of the public. “Public corruption is allowed to flourish when ordinary citizens remain silent in the face of obvious wrongdoing,” Mr. Machen said following Mr. Banks’s plea last week. To their credit, Mr. Garvin and Mr. Banks cooperated with city and federal investigations of Mr. Thomas; that they signed plea agreements prior to a federal raid on Mr. Thomas’s home speaks to the helpful role they played in the investigation.
It’s clear from the information so far released that this was not a particularly sophisticated scheme; it was a simple theft powered by hubris, political connections and lack of controls. Mr. Thomas is clearly the guilty party but, as these recent pleas demonstrate, he was enabled by a laissez-faire approach to what’s right and wrong.
Loading...
Comments