Public pension scandal investigations mushrooming

Instapundit reports:

At Newsday, the story began when an anonymous reader told an editorial aide that Reich was a private lawyer getting public benefits for free. That led to a story in February. Records showed that five Long Island school districts falsely reported him as a full-time employee at the same time, enabling him to secure a public pension of nearly $62,000 a year, as well as health benefits for life. In one year, records showed, he was reported as having worked 1,286 days.

While the school districts reported Reich as an employee, they also were paying his law firm millions of dollars. That raised legal questions because the Internal Revenue Service taxes employees and independent consultants differently.

Although Reich defended the arrangement as a "common practice," the story set off a firestorm. The FBI and IRS subpoenaed the school districts' records the next day; a few days later, Cuomo launched a parallel investigation.

Ken Lay got into the wrong business.