Crime, Student Loans

Lawyer Charged With Soliciting A Bribe... To Pay Off Student Loans

Student debt can make people do some crazy things. Can it also make people do some criminal things?

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The plight of student debt manifests itself in many ways, but a lawyer and federal agent soliciting a bribe from a marijuana peddler to get the Sallie Mae (probably) monkey off his back is one for the books. It’s bad enough to walk out of school tens of thousands in debt and finding yourself working as a government agent for a paltry salary before you add the prospect of 15 years or so in the federal slammer.

IRS agent and University of Washington Law grad Paul G. Hurley earned a charge of soliciting and agreeing to receive a bribe by a public official and two counts of receiving a bribe by a public official.

Prosecutors say Hurley demanded $20,000 from the marijuana shop owner in exchange for granting him lenience in an audit, despite the business owner never requesting a break.

After the bribe proposition, the pot shop owner reported Hurley to federal authorities, who supervised the subsequent handover of money, according to charging papers.

The culprit, as usual, is the nebulous legal landscape around legalized marijuana. With the federal government denying certain tax benefits to legal pot dealerships, it opened the door to abuse and the government says Hurley walked right in, helping the store save a hefty sum in their audit and then making the fateful request:

However, Hurley later asked whether he could ask the owner a question “off the record” and then mentioned that he saved the owner more than $1 million in the audit, court records say.

He went on to say he was living paycheck-to-paycheck and had previously talked about being unhappy at the IRS, but was working there to pay off student loans, according to the charging documents.

The business owner was silent for a moment, at which time Hurley reportedly said, “20,” hinting at a demand for $20,000, prosecutors claim. Hurley is alleged to have gone on to say that he wanted the pot shop owner to pay off his student loans in small amounts over time.

Well, if convicted he won’t have to live paycheck-to-paycheck for room and board. That’s something.

On the one hand, this is a terrible commentary on student debt and the appalling pressures it places on our workforce. Usually these pressures involve locking up talent in dead-end jobs that pay bills instead of encouraging entrepreneurial risk-taking or public interest endeavors as opposed to “federal crimes” but they’re all threads on the loom of human experience. On the other hand, he’s a Washington Husky so who cares?

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Feds: Seattle IRS agent accepted bribe from marijuana shop owner [Seattle P-I]

Earlier: The Feds Are Blunting Legal Marijuana In America

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