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From Wikipedia;

 

Coconut Road

In 2006, Young added a $10 million earmark to a transportation bill for the construction of an interstate interchange for a short stretch of road (known as "Coconut Road") near Fort Myers, Florida. Some puzzled why a congressman from Alaska would earmark for a little road in Florida that the local community opposed. A June 2007 article in the New York Times reported that a local real estate developer, Daniel J. Aronoff, who owns 4,000 acres (16 km²) along the road helped raise $40,000 for Young shortly before the earmark was inserted. Young's spokeswoman Meredith Kenny initially said that the local Republican congressman, Connie Mack, had requested the funding. In fact, both Mack and local Republican politicians opposed the funding.^[34][35][36]

In August 2007, the Naples Daily News reported that the words "Coconut Road interchange" were not in the federal transportation bill as it was approved by Congress. Instead, the words were added after the votes in the House and Senate, but before President Bush signed the bill. The original language for the $10 million earmark specified it was for widening of and improvements to Interstate 75. The language within the earmark was changed during a process called "bill enrollment", when technical corrections such as changes in punctuation are made to legislation before it is sent to the President.^[37]

In April 2008, top Senate Democrats and Republicans supported asking the Justice Department for a criminal investigation of the $10 million earmark. Young's staff acknowledged that aides "corrected" the earmark just before it went to the White House for President Bush's signature, specifying that the money would go to the proposed highway interchange project. Young said that the project was entirely worthy of an earmark and that he welcomed any inquiry, a spokeswoman said. Young's office said that presentations made by Florida Gulf Coast University officials and the developers proved the case for the project.^[38]

[edit] Federal investigation

On July 24, 2007, the Wall Street Journal reported that Young was under federal investigation for possibly taking bribes, illegal gratuities or unreported gifts from VECO Corporation, an Anchorage-based company. The top two executives of that company had already pleaded guilty to bribing members of the Alaska legislature.^[39] The Journal said a VECO executive held fundraisers called "the Pig Roast" for Young every August for ten years. Between 1996 and 2006, Young received $157,000 from VECO employees and its political action committee. In the first half of 2007, Young spent more than $250,000 of his campaign contributions for legal fees.^[22]

A confession signed by Bill Allen, the former chief of VECO, was released in October 2009. Allen agreed that from 1993 to August 2006, both he and his deputy at VECO, Rick Smith, "provided things of value to United States Representative A," a reference to Young. For example, in June 2006, Smith obtained a set of golf clubs, costing approximately $1,000, that Smith gave to Young. Although Young was obligated in 2006 to report gifts with a value of more than $335, he didn't report receiving any gifts on the personal financial disclosure form he filed with the House of Representatives for that year.^[40]

“Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of
corporate and government power.” - Benito Mussolini

"All that is required for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing."  E. Burke

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