Got a political connection? Get a share of an airport contract, do hardly anything. No experience necessary.
It's not just in Philadelphia.
New Orleans, Chicago, Washington, Miami - airports across the country have been roiled by allegations of patronage and no-work deals in concessions.
The deals have at times gone to the wealthy, even though the minority-business program through which many of the deals are made is set up to help the disadvantaged. And the minority partners sometimes are given little to do, in spite of rules that say everyone must perform a "commercially useful" role.
Here, the question for federal prosecutors is: Was this a criminal fraud?
In some cases around the country that have been explored by federal investigators, "they're literally borrowing their name, paying them money to do nothing, just to meet the requirements," said Michael Freilich, of the Federal Aviation Administration's office of civil rights.
The FAA has been trying to crack down on such practices, rewriting the rules to add a net-worth limit for concession partners and spelling out plainly that everybody is supposed to do real work.
Industry representatives, pointing out that airport deals require big money, say the net-worth rule may penalize businesspeople for success.
And, while conceding that no one should get money for nothing, they say it may be unfair to penalize partners for breaking rules they say were never that clear.
Robert Ashby, an FAA enforcement lawyer, says it is possible - but not always easy - to charge violators with a crime. First, prosecutors have to show that people knew they were wrong. "If you don't find the e-mail that says, 'We've got the suckers now,' it might be difficult," Ashby said.
The lawyer for Janice Knight, who is under investigation in the airport probe, said his client never tried to pretend she was doing work that she was not - and that no one from the city ever objected.
"There's no concealment, no hiding, no payments under the table," Nino V. Tinari said. "Everything is transparent."
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