|
MIDDLETOWN - In 1991, Middletown Supervisor Raymond Mongillo, along with
Township Engineer S.J. (Bruce) Campbell, filed paperwork to form a
corporation named Pacific Basin Mining and Development, Inc. The
law in Pennsylvania requires that elected officials and government
employees file a Statement of Financial Interests with the Ethics
Commission detailing, among other things, "Office, directorship or
employment in any business" and "Financial interest in any legal entity in
business for profit". Despite naming himself Secretary-Treasurer and
listing his home address as the corporate address, Mongillo repeatedly
checked the box marked "None" for both of these questions, and filed the
fraudulent documents.
Why the deception? Being partners with an individual who does
business with the township and then voting to give work and money to that
individual is illegal. Mongillo knowingly and wantonly broke
the law, for years, to conceal this relationship from the
authorities and citizens of Middletown Township.
But that is not even the best part.
Pacific Basin Mining and Development, Inc. was formed to salvage
buried treasure. Allegedly, Mongillo and Campbell received
information that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos had looted his
country of gold and jewels and hidden it in the walls of an abandoned
church in the Philippine jungle, prior to his ouster by the U.S. military.
Believing that they could steal the Philippine people's money for
themselves, Mongillo and Campbell formed a corporation, solicited
investors, and made several trips to the Philippine islands to make the
arrangements No news as of this writing if our modern-day
swashbucklers ever uncovered a plugged nickel.
Now, after a healthy two-year hiatus during which Bruce Campbell
was terminated from working for Middletown, he's back, and, on January 5,
2004, Mongillo voted on his appointment. Why? Because state
ethics law required him to abstain from the vote, and abstaining requires
the filing of a form detailing the reasons for abstention. In other
words, Mongillo would have had to reveal, over his signature, that he was
in business with Campbell, a business that he has worked long and hard to
keep secret.
Corruption in local government? Arrrgh, matey! With Mongillo, this is only
the tip of the iceberg.
|
