Ben Wagner is the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California and a co-host of the seminar.  

 

He says public corruption and government fraud are unlike other types of crime, "There's no crime scene. There's often relatively little forensic evidence.  And importantly the witnesses to acts of corruption are usually people who are involved in the corrupt transactions themselves."

  

Wagner says people who are willing to report suspected public corruption such as campaign finance abuse or fraud are law enforcement's best weapon for stopping such activities. 

 

Wagner says fraud and corruption follow trends.  The latest trend he's seeing is marijuana growers and sellers trying to obtain favorable treatment from zoning officials and other government employees.