How Google's $500 Million Fine For Selling Illegal Drugs Online Went To Rhode Island Police
Retirement Benefits
For the very first time, an internet search engine owned by giant Google was forced by the Justice Department to forfeit $500 million that was earned from the illegal distribution of counterfeit drugs. The settlement by Google, which was announced a year ago, has been used in part to relieve the underfunded pensions for retired policemen in two small Rhode Island cities, East Providence and North Providence.
This unique deployment of $70 million (or 15% of the $500 million forfeiture) was made possible through the intervention of Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who prevailed upon Attorney General Eric Holder to bypass restrictions on the rules for the use of such criminal proceeds. The reason given was that police from these two Rhode Island communities had helped the federal investigation into the search engine’s distribution of ads for illegal prescription drug sales.
Sen. Whitehouse called this settlement “a transformational financial moment” in that the proceeds ordinarily could be used only for law enforcement investigations, training and equipment. Attorney General Holder acquiesced in allowing the money to be used to relieve some of the underfunded pension plans for retired policemen in Rhode Island. Clearly, we can expect the government’s burgeoning program for the forfeiture of cash to be siphoned off to government enforcement programs that are themselves being cut back by reduced budgets.
MORE-
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlenzner/2014/01/17/how-a-500-million-fine-paid-by-google-for-selling-illegal-drugs-on-the-web-is-used-for-retiremernt-benefits-rhode-island-police/