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Audit finds San Francisco tax official steered $10M contract to friend (sfstandard.com)
23 points by littlexsparkee 2 hours ago
5 comments

This is bad and am glad they found it but with what is going on at the federal level this feels miniscule and not even a rounding error.

One example out of hundreds - the kids purchased shares in a Kazakh tungsten mining venture just before the U.S. government backed deal was finalized.

That's true but this is one of many SF scandals (Nuru & Dept of Public Works, Recology rate-fixing, Dream Keeper Initiative & Sheryl Davis, Hunters Point Tetra Tech botched cleanup, DBI & SFPUC probes) in recent history
I believe this is the actual audit report here: https://media.api.sf.gov/documents/TTX_Business_Tax_System_P...

Page 27 / exhibit 4 is the most interesting piece of evidence for steering to me.

Pool contract?
This is very common. All cities with large budgets have some amount of corruption. Look for nonprofits that have poorly defined goals and you’ll find it. But the federal government is also this way. Look at the Trump administration’s various corrupt actions like the reflecting pool contract going to a mar a lago neighbor. Or ICE detention center contracts. Or regulations. Corruption is getting normalized at all levels of government.
There is growing awareness and demands to do something, it will take time and be an endless battle.

How Voters Define Corruption: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DsBz5sn9Vg