Thursday, June 27, 2013

Informants, Sleeping On Your Bed And Living Next Door

One of the many twists in the Wen Ho Lee, and one of the shocking knowledge Lee gained at court trail was that it turned out that his wife had been an FBI informant. He hadn't known the woman he had slept with for decades were an eye for the government. While, on the other end, his wife was equally shocked to learn that Lee himself had been an FBI informant, too.

You would never know who is a government agent or who is not, like you would never know what are included in your file kept by state troopers, FBI, NSA, and whoever else.

As it happened to be, when a Chinese business man in Washington D.C. applied for a license for taxi operator, the Chair of the D.C. Taxicab Commission Leon Swain was a government informant. Anthony C. Y. Cheng Sr. and son Anthony R. Cheng Jr. was indicted (US v. Cheng and Cheng, 1:13-cr-00184-ESH) yesterday on allegation that they bribed Swain $1,500 in January 2011 for the license.

Cheng and Cheng could have had a chance to change their destiny. According to defense attorney Ken Robinson, Chengs were engaged by federal agencies in January 2013, but refused the opportunity.

US Attorney Ron Machen stated, 'we cannot tolerate the culture of pay-to-play in the District of Columbia'.

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