FBI was investigating Murtha for corruption, new records show

The FBI talked to a Red Top Cab driver who described how he drove Murtha around town regularly and later billed PMA.

A former defense contractor employee told agents in 2007 that contractors seeking federal defense work were advised “to hire lobbyists close to Murtha” and arrange to act as a subcontractor to a firm in Murtha’s district.

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To “get an earmark from Murtha, they had to request it from a company or firm in Pittsburgh, which is in Murtha’s district,” according to FBI notes of a witness statement. “The earmark would be given to the company in Murtha’s district and subcontracted” to the firm seeking the work. “If you wanted Murtha, you had to do it this way.”

The records show that evidence was presented to a grand jury as early as 2007 and that federal agents focused much of their time in 2008 and 2009 looking at the links between Murtha and PMA.

“PMA had a 90 to 95 percent success rate in obtaining project earmarks for clients,” one witness told the FBI, adding that clients and lobbyists working in this field “understood the earmark game and Murtha’s position.”

From 1989 to 2009, Magliocchetti and his employees contributed $3.4 million to federal politicians and political interests. PMA had grown to become one of Washington’s 10 most lucrative lobbying firms.

In late 2009, federal agents searched the firm’s Arlington offices, signaling their investigation of Magliocchetti. PMA effectively folded, and its remaining lobbyists left for new jobs.

One of Murtha’s fellow appropriators, Peter J. Visclosky (D-Ind.), and his chief of staff, Charles Brimmer, also came under FBI scrutiny. That separate investigation, which made news when agents subpoenaed records from Visclosky’s office in June 2009, has been considered inactive for about a year, sources said.

The FBI also focused on KSA Consulting, which was formed in 2002 and within two years had obtained $20 million in Murtha-endorsed earmarks for seven clients. Over the years, analysts and agents reviewed companies that were hiring KSA to find out why some appeared to have no industrial presence or why they used KSA’s address.

In a June 2009 memo, agents said they had reason to believe that KSA officials “are engaging, or have engaged, in possible criminal activity so as to justify the opening of a full investigation.” The memo cited bribery, mail fraud, honest-services fraud and money laundering as possible crimes.

Few wanted to comment Tuesday on Murtha’s FBI file, including the Justice Department and the FBI. Rep. Mark S. Critz, Murtha’s successor and former staff member, did not respond to requests for comment. The phone number for KSA Consulting is no longer in service. Bob Murtha, the late lawmaker’s nephew, could not be reached to comment late Tuesday.