Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, is nicknamed the “mayor of Capitol Hill.” He chairs the powerful House Administration Committee, which controls offices and perks.<\/p>\n
In February 2003, Ney took a three-day trip to London. Following House rules, he reported the trip cost $2,707 and was paid for by FN Aviation. Nigel Winfield is the group’s director.<\/p>\n
NBC News has learned that Winfield, who met with Ney in London, is a three-time convicted felon who spent more than six years in prison. He cheated on his taxes and was involved in a deal to swindle Elvis Presley.<\/p>\n
In a telephone interview, Winfield told NBC News he wanted Ney’s help selling planes in the Middle East. “My only interest was trying to meet a congressman and see what we could do,” says Winfield.<\/p>\n
In London, Winfield says Ney attended meetings, one over dinner at a casino with Winfield and Fouad al-Zayat, a Syrian-born businessman who heads FN Aviation. Zayat is one of London’s biggest gamblers, betting hundreds of thousands of dollars on roulette in a sitting. Experts say Ney’s trip may violate House rules.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Wait. It gets worse.
\n
\nIn 2002, Ney had at least $30,000 in credit card debt. In 2003, after helping a three-time convicted felon connect with a Syrian businessman at a London casino, Ney reported that he won $34,000 at the very same London casino on an initial bet of $100. A few months later, he paid off his credit card debt.<\/p>\n
For some reason, ethics experts are suggesting that Ney be investigated.<\/p>\n
“The ethical problem will be: Did the trip consist of something connected to his official duties, or was it simply a foreign romp to go gambling?” says former House Ethics Committee counsel Stan Brand.<\/p>\n
“I, for one, think that the House Ethics Committee needs to examine all of Mr. Ney’s travel for the past several years, and examine his conduct and make sure it was all above-board,” says Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Asked about the trip yesterday, Ney said, “I have no comment for you.”<\/p>\n
It’s quite a House caucus the Republicans have there, isn’t it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tom DeLay’s ethical transgressions are serious enough to wonder whether he’ll be able to keep his job, but let’s not forget that he’s hardly the only one under a cloud of corruption charges. Consider, for example, House Administration Committee Chairman Bob Ney (R-Ohio). The Washington Post reported a couple of weeks ago that Ney, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}