(Ed.'s Note: During the trial of Brownsville Independent School District board member Dr. Sylvia P. Atkinson the FP (federal prosecutor) asked the UCA (Under Cover Agent) if he had ever visited Brownsville and he said no. He was an undercover FBI agent. He had never heard of Atkinson or had any clue of her past dealings here or in any other district where she was either fired or resigned. He had no idea of her previous relationships with other elected officials, administrators, or judges. He had no idea of her involvement in other elected officials' campaigns or alleged corruption deals.)
FP: Why did you come down to Brownsville?
UCA: The Brownsville FBI field office asked me to come and help them with this case.
FP" Are you (UCA) an expert in the movie industry?
UCA: No.
(It only took Sylvia Atkinson about half an hour for her to feel comfortable. The UCA said at first he spoke in a coded language and that she caught on to it immediately.)
FP: What do you mean Coded Language?
UCA: Terms that if you are conducting an illegal transaction or being recorded it could mean other things but in the sense of understanding what I tried to tell her she knew.
FP: In other words, was she willing to be bribed?
UCA: Correct.
FP: so there was no doubt she knew that you were willing to bribe her to get this film project to be placed on the BiSD agenda and guarantee it will get approved?
UCA: Yes.
UCA: It was more like the first half hour to 45 minutes. It took us longer to order food. Phrases that make the person understand what our intention is, and give them an opportunity to either back off immediately or ask what they mean or be more specific.
FP: Phrases like what? Phrases like:
FP: Phrases like what? Phrases like:
UCA: You know we want to make sure you are very well taken care of.
SPA: Of course.
UCA: If you are well taken care of, this whole project would be a lot easier.
SPA: I agree.
UCA: If you at anytime have any questions for me or don’t feel like you are the right person to help move this project, just let me know and it will be ok. Or if you are not that person that I should be speaking with or you suggest I speak with anyone else just say so. We are here to make sure the correct person or persons are happy with the project. The last thing we want is for this project not to happen because someone was unhappy or wasn’t included.
SPA: There is no reason to go to anyone else.
UCA: So no one else will have to meet with me or will need more?
SPA. Yes
UCA: Wow I wished it was this easy to do business like this in other cities.
SPA: How so?
UCA: In other cities, you have to deal with so many people and meet a lot of people to get a film off the ground. City Mayors, Commissioners, Permit departments etc. There is a lot of people we need to make sure they are comfortable. If you know what I mean.
SPA: Ha, ha, ha. I know what you mean. Not with me. It will get done with one person. Ha,ha,ha
UCA: Good, that saves us a lot of time and money and we are happy to make you comfortable.
SPA. Yes
FP. At this point what was her reaction to the coded language?
UCA: She felt more comfortable. There has to be a time to allow the person to feel you out and you do the same before you are more blunt about what your intentions are.
FP: What do you mean by more blunt?
UCA: To get to the point. To get to how much it will take to get the project done. In other words how much money are we going to have to give her? Once I knew she didn’t get scared or showed any signs that she didn’t understand that I was going to bribe her or that she wasn’t going to get bribed. Basically, at this point, I knew she was expecting to get bribed and we both wanted to get to that point.
FP: So how did you get to the question of how much?
UCA: Well I just asked. So do you know what it will be for you to be comfortable?
SPA: Around 10.
UCA: Ok. Wow. I wish every project in other cities were as easy. I mean we could get a lot of projects done it being this easy.
SPA. Yes yes.
FP: were you willing to give her the 10 there.
UCA: No
FP: why not?
UCA: I didn’t think it was going to be that easy and that quick and I didn’t have the 10 on me.
FP: How much did you have?
UCA: I had 4 thousand in my wallet.
FP: So what happened next?
UCA: I told her I only had 4 of the 10 on me but as soon as she put it on the agenda and got it approved, I will fly anywhere in the world back to Brownsville that same night I got her to call it was done to give her the other 6. That I didn’t care where I was at, I wanted her to be taken care of.
SPA: Of course.
UCA: If you are well taken care of, this whole project would be a lot easier.
SPA: I agree.
UCA: If you at anytime have any questions for me or don’t feel like you are the right person to help move this project, just let me know and it will be ok. Or if you are not that person that I should be speaking with or you suggest I speak with anyone else just say so. We are here to make sure the correct person or persons are happy with the project. The last thing we want is for this project not to happen because someone was unhappy or wasn’t included.
SPA: There is no reason to go to anyone else.
UCA: So no one else will have to meet with me or will need more?
SPA. Yes
UCA: Wow I wished it was this easy to do business like this in other cities.
SPA: How so?
UCA: In other cities, you have to deal with so many people and meet a lot of people to get a film off the ground. City Mayors, Commissioners, Permit departments etc. There is a lot of people we need to make sure they are comfortable. If you know what I mean.
SPA: Ha, ha, ha. I know what you mean. Not with me. It will get done with one person. Ha,ha,ha
UCA: Good, that saves us a lot of time and money and we are happy to make you comfortable.
SPA. Yes
FP. At this point what was her reaction to the coded language?
UCA: She felt more comfortable. There has to be a time to allow the person to feel you out and you do the same before you are more blunt about what your intentions are.
FP: What do you mean by more blunt?
UCA: To get to the point. To get to how much it will take to get the project done. In other words how much money are we going to have to give her? Once I knew she didn’t get scared or showed any signs that she didn’t understand that I was going to bribe her or that she wasn’t going to get bribed. Basically, at this point, I knew she was expecting to get bribed and we both wanted to get to that point.
FP: So how did you get to the question of how much?
UCA: Well I just asked. So do you know what it will be for you to be comfortable?
SPA: Around 10.
UCA: Ok. Wow. I wish every project in other cities were as easy. I mean we could get a lot of projects done it being this easy.
SPA. Yes yes.
FP: were you willing to give her the 10 there.
UCA: No
FP: why not?
UCA: I didn’t think it was going to be that easy and that quick and I didn’t have the 10 on me.
FP: How much did you have?
UCA: I had 4 thousand in my wallet.
FP: So what happened next?
UCA: I told her I only had 4 of the 10 on me but as soon as she put it on the agenda and got it approved, I will fly anywhere in the world back to Brownsville that same night I got her to call it was done to give her the other 6. That I didn’t care where I was at, I wanted her to be taken care of.
SPA: Good.
The federal prosecutor then played the audio when she leans over to whisper to UCA to not tell Rodrigo Moreno about the deal. If you can picture Moreno eating away at his food minding his own business while Atkinson getting ready to cut him off the deal.
In the audio, you hear the music in the background, dishes being picked up, and glass clinking against each other. Were close to the kitchen or maybe Moreno was just ordering a lot of refills?
The federal prosecutor then played the audio when she leans over to whisper to UCA to not tell Rodrigo Moreno about the deal. If you can picture Moreno eating away at his food minding his own business while Atkinson getting ready to cut him off the deal.
In the audio, you hear the music in the background, dishes being picked up, and glass clinking against each other. Were close to the kitchen or maybe Moreno was just ordering a lot of refills?
36 comments:
It's a shame that it appears the citizens of Brownsville have the choice to vote for either the same group of criminals or a different group of criminals.
And the mayor and the rest of the mamones? Their time will ocme and SOOOOOONNNN.
Typical FBI case. ATKINSON was easy pickings. Que triste.
need to reform the academy system – and stop the power-hungry super-heads
Greedy “superheads” of school districts coupled with headline claims about other heads involved in money-grabbing and cronyism has thrown a spotlight on to the role of teachers. Is it right that the pushy ones are paid a great deal more than the Governor? Do they have too much power to hire their favourites and sack whistleblowers?
There is one here that just got busted by the FBI.
Public school corruption is common, with perpetrators rarely held accountable. Though the vast majority of school board members are honest, the nation's 13,500 district school boards could do far more to ferret out corruption. ... Even by Hollywood standards, school district fraud can be dramatic.
Its time to start holding these people accountable for their corruption and actions.
The bureau notched nearly 30 convictions, including that of a former school board president who pocketed over $140,000 in bribes. As Peter Burns and Matthew Thomas note in Reforming New Orleans, one enterprising administrator actually granted a large contract to repair fire damage to a school a month before the fire occurred.
WOW is that going to happen here? BISD needs to be looked into for more corruption.
So someone paid you to only post the answers by the FBI when asked by the DOJ, but not his answers when asked by Sylvia's attorneys. How much did this cost your source?
Illegally recruiting star athletes from outside the district by getting their families jobs, or even houses, and then failing to report when those same athletes misbehave.
Creatively manipulating official measures such as graduation rates and absenteeism.
Allowing those accused of sexual harassment to resign quietly and find jobs in other school districts rather than face public discipline.
Allowing embezzlers to resign quietly and find jobs in other school districts rather than calling the cops.
Misusing personnel systems to employ the relatives or lovers of administrators rather than the best educators.
Two key conditions enable corruption.
First, education intellectuals avoid researching public school corruption; some prefer cover-ups to clean-ups. For example, in Fertilizers, Pills, and Magnetic Strips, Gene Glass writes approvingly that corrupt acts in public schools “are usually dealt with in subtle ways that protect the dignity of the individuals involved while protecting the integrity of the school.” We see this phenomenon in Bad Education when Tassone and the Roslyn school board ask Gluckin to resign and claim she has cancer—all before Tassone’s involvement was uncovered. While the writers took some creative liberties with the story, our experiences suggest the example rings true in real-life situations.
CORRUPTION IN SCHOOL DISTRICTS IS A MAJOR PROBLEM AND BIG BIG BUSINESS. BISD NEEDS TO BE CLOSELY MONITORED DAILY. THINGS HAVE TO CHANGE FOR THE BETTER OF THE STUDENTS AND ITS CITIZENS.
changing school financing laws to foster simplicity and transparency and encouraging the creation of state- or district-level inspectors general for schools. Meanwhile, state lawmakers should create more public and private learning options for students and allow parents to vote with their feet by leaving districts beset with problems.
BISD is a corrupt agency students and parents must make a choice take your child to a private school until BISD starts to correct its rampant corruption.
Young Students Walk Out to Protest School District Corruption
A day to walk out students and parents and maybe teachers to show the public all these corrpution MUST stop.
Election at Hand, Biden Leads Trump in Four Key States, Poll Shows
GOOD NIGHT IRENE GOOD NIGHT bye bye pendejo...
I heard different I heard her say, "mon Dieu".
I still can't believe that SPA was so stupid to fall for this type of corruption. Maybe deep down she has a valid reason for being so stupid. How can she deny it if it is recorded with her own "sweet, personal, voice?"
I want to feel sorry for her but her actions do not allow me to condom what she has done to the BISD family. I hope we are not at the top of the barrel with her and that some others will be drowning underneath her demands. She is innocent until proven guilty, but with her reputation, she is smart enough to figure out some scheme to get out of it.
The same con that Sylvia Atkinson did at Rio Hondo ISD with the tablet purchase Sylvia attempted to do the same in BISD. Sylvia Atkinson through the former BISD computer administrator (Joe P.) who now works for a charter school came up with a scheme to purchase tablets for BISD through Ben G. (the Fred Loya Insurance Guy) who is married to a Rancho Viejo city council member who is currently running for re-election and Oscar G., the son of the former local college president. Sylvia and these 3 guys stood to make a bundle from BISD buying these tablets. Could all these 4 individuals be involved in the alleged crimes in Rio Hondo. I imagine these 3 guys must be scared that they are next to face a judge. Sylvia and Joe P. did not count on the BISD technology committee stopping the purchase of the tablets from Ben G. and Oscar G. It was later reported that thousands of unsold tablets were stored in the old building on West Elizabeth and West 4th. Sylvia wanting to make a quick buck probably wanted to sell these junk tablets that BISD rejected to Rio Hondo ISD.
This chicken feed compared to the THIEVERY at PUB Feds look into that Tenaska monies city commission trying to hide this THIEVERY by doing an in house audit.
Y que dice el sonso de Smiley who took her with him and got rid of an administrator to open a job for her? Te pico los ojos, Smiley and please don't tell me you also were right in there with her. People in Rio Hondo also feared her and despised her but Smiley fell for her, just like Carl Montoya did. Carl gave her complete control of the reigns cause he was too lazy to do anything himself and so SPA took advantage of that in many ways? She even sued the school district related to that topic for almost a quarter of a million dollars and came out smiling when she and her lawyer left the executive conference room. All of us in the audience were sickened by her
smirky smile. Let's see how much she smiles on her way to the transportation van.
2:31pm as a librarian we got the Kajeet Tablet fiasco instead because of a big push by Mr. Cowen and Todd Nichols. The Technology Director has been Mr. Fisher who did not have a committee just chose them and they never worked. Then we had Alma Rubio cheer for these tablets at every meeting because it was a flop but no one wanted to look bad. The Alma Rubio lied that the tablets were heavily used. We don't want Rubio near any tablet purchase. Play back those Tech meetings. They are usually useless and over the top with Mr. Cowen bragging how he knows technology. Mr. Fisher picked the tablets to please Mr. Cowen. Play back the meetings people. Some people don't know what really goes on, just like 2:31post...ask any librarian, tech teacher and teachers, the Kajeet tablets sucked and Cowen got big payday and secured their jobs.
What everybody knew is now out in the open. Things will never change until the voters ditch their "palanca" thinking and vote for straight up honest people. Sadly we are little more that Mata Norte when it comes to eleceting people.
The 2:31pm jajaja guys where do you all get your gossip from. Bertha Pena's cunado Fisher has been the Admin forever. Puras pachangas during and after hours and the wifa is the first one in line to get a plate. That's the Technology Admin that we all know. Us at maintenance get a lot of help with him pero la wifa nomas no. No la aguanta, puro nagging y honey do's. Pobre Fisher, vente para aca boss.
Joe P (Pedraza) was also a chair on the insurance committee. He allowed the Salazar Insurance guy to switch insurance companies without even going out for bids. I didn’t even realize we were doing something wrong, until another committee member brought this to my attention.
Why is this important? Because he took advantage of our lack of knowledge about bidding requirements.
Some say Kent Whittemore and Judy Cuellar also did this when they were in charge of directing the insurance department. They were all real friendly with Joe Salazar and Letty Martinez who work for Salazar Agency.
TAKE THEM ALL DOWN FBI!!! BISD and PUB ARE CORRUPT! OUR CITY REEKS OF TOXIC WASTE!
Where is your Cameron County District Attorney white collar crime unit? I guess Saenz and Delaney are too busy fishing down at the Arroyo. Just think what they could catch if they did a little fishing in the world of crime.
So how did all these crooks get their degrees? Con the professors or bribed them?
Y el DA que? Do we have a DA? Did he resigned? Where is he? Is the DA on vacation? Is so when is he coming back? Any plans to indict all of these crooks? When?
@7:08person. How does all this buying happening when schools can't even order their supplies because Finance, Mary Garza stops everything and gives us hell. Plus, the technology person we know is Fisher admin. For Fisher, its known that Mary Garza approves everything because he is her tech guy after hours. Fixing her home computer and doing all these favors for her. Employees in her Department have said that she got a Condo at the Island, a dump by the way, that Fisher fixed for her. Mary Garza rents her EasyBreeze101 condo on FB for $$$. She promotes it all over with the BISD classified employees. If campuses and Departments are buying all this stuff, it goes through her. Ask anyone at BISD. Ask Erasmo Castro, he knows Mary Garza did Sylvia's commands and push agenda items. There is no ethics with BISD. It's who you know.
@Its spelled "come" Pendejo!
8:12pm how does a committee person have so much power over the Insurance Administrator and the Board. A lot of spiteful posters trying to throw mud around. Then you all had Micaela Escobar who ran up the insurance Dept and costs went up for everyone and recommend a Relative, Eder Hernandez who owns the clinics to be the sole clinic provider to be used. I was also in the insurance Committee and hey we had no say, everything was decided by Micaela who got a big pay day and is now the Administrator for paper and recycles at over $130k. Stop feeding us two readers crumbs and go after the real BISD movers like Minnie, Sylvia, And Cowen. The Committees are just for show. Everything is decided already jajajaj
Orale 2:31pm...I worked at Porter back in the ages with Robby Fisher. El Fisher did whatever as a vocational teacher. Then his cunada, Bertha Pena got him out of the classroom straight to Technology Administrator with no experience or background. Bertha Pena gifted him the job and she was proud of telling us Porter raza that her brother in law was now the Administrator. C'mon we all knew Fisher at Porter le valia madre but he belonged to Pena and Atkinson click that took care of him and then his wife, La Olive, aka, who wants to be CTE Administrator since her Rivera days. People, look around, a regular Porter teacher does not become Administrator just like that. It's who you are related to and favors. The same way you see Robby Fisher now, all tirado is the same way we knew him at Porter. Le valia madre but Bertha Pena held him up so high in a silver platter. Guess what, I was a teacher and retired as a teacher, I ain't no admin. At least I have my check and six pack and can sleep at night.
Isn't it a crime or illegal to deposit kick-back money in a federal bank or any other bank???? Where's the DA?
Did the mayor and all the others that got 2k from the kick-back scam deposited that money in a bank???
TOO MUCH MONKEY BUSINESS GOING ON IN THIS TOWN...
Anybody associated with the purchase of those tablets needs to get investigated. Cowen wanted a payday, Rubio and Garza wanted to be good with the board member for a future promotion.
RATS IN THE KITCHEN..
Hahaha, maintenance department welcome Mr. fishar. He can come over anytime to get away from the wife. We understand man, bertha Pena was always checking on him. The guys keep saying how the wife calls for lunch and he gets no break. Hey over here at maintenance we have you covered man. Puro relax!
Sunshine WHAT? That's what she's gonna miss DA SUN
All these back door deals are why the employees and the students have been getting screwed for years after years!
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