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Now at least two dozen brokerage houses are checking to see whether any of their employees were also privy to the Business Week leaks. Many brokerages have turned over their trading records to the New York Stock Exchange, which is conducting a computer analysis. Says one investigator: "There is nowhere to hide. We're going to catch anyone who profited by advance knowledge of the column." Such individuals could face criminal charges for wire and mail fraud.
-- Mario Biaggi, a Bronx Democrat who has served for 20 years in Congress, was convicted of 15 felony counts for his part in the Wedtech scandal. The federal jury found Biaggi guilty of extorting $1.8 million in Wedtech stock and $50,000 in cash in return for his influence in getting federal military contracts for the Bronx-based manufacturing company. The day after the conviction Biaggi tearfully resigned his seat in Congress.
Biaggi, 70, who was once one of New York City's most decorated police officers, professed his innocence and plans to appeal the conviction. Said he: "Not a single penny, gift, trip, not a share of stock, ever came to me." But the jury apparently took the word of four former Wedtech executives who testified against Biaggi. In a separate case, Biaggi was sentenced last year to 30 months in prison for obstructing justice and accepting a free trip to Florida as a payoff for his assistance to a Brooklyn shipyard.
-- The Pentagon procurement scandal cost 89 people their jobs when Unisys, the computer maker, canceled all its contracts with tiny, Florida-based Armtec, a manufacturer of electronics used in radar systems. Since Unisys is Armtec's main customer, the action forced the company to shut down its operations. Federal agents are investigating Armtec as a possible conduit for illegal payments from Unisys employees to federal officials involved in arms procurement. In particular, the Government is studying the relationship between Unisys, Armtec and Congressman Bill Chappell Jr., a Florida Democrat ^ who is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on defense. Chappell persuaded Armtec to locate in his district and supported the MK-92 radar system, which is built by Unisys with Armtec as a subcontractor.
Many scholars believe that sleaze comes in cycles and that this decade's ethical looseness was partly inspired by the deregulatory, anything-goes mood of the Reagan era. "People convince themselves that a new norm of acceptability applies because of the general atmosphere of corruption," says Michael Josephson, founder of the Josephson Institute for the Advancement of Ethics in Los Angeles. The emphasis on money as an absolute barometer of success was equally corrupting. Says Donald Shriver, head of the Union Theological Seminary: "The Protestant work heritage is being stood on its head because making money has become a good unto itself."