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.
