State Sen. Ulysses Currie is entitled to have copies of materials seized from his home during an FBI raid in May, as well as the search warrant affidavit filed by the U.S. attorney's office, federal Magistrate Judge Paul W. Grimm ruled yesterday.
Currie, a Prince George's Democrat who is chairman of the General Assembly's Budget and Taxation Committee, is under federal investigation in connection with his ties to Lanham-based Shoppers Food and Pharmacy, with whom he was employed as a consultant.
Currie's attorney, Dale Kelberman, declined to be interviewed as he left the Baltimore courthouse yesterday. U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein also declined to comment on the case yesterday.
The Sun reported yesterday that Currie intervened several times in recent years on behalf of the grocery store chain when it was seeking public financing and other concessions as part of the multimillion-dollar redevelopment of Mondawmin Mall in West Baltimore. Currie did not disclose his employment by Shoppers in General Assembly ethics forms, and state and city officials he lobbied on the grocery chain's behalf said they weren't aware of it.
Supervalu Inc., the grocery store chain's parent company, has confirmed that Currie worked for the company, but officials have declined to say when.
The federal investigation came to light in May when the FBI carried out simultaneous raids on Currie's District Heights home and Shoppers' Lanham headquarters. Since then, several state agencies have been served grand-jury subpoenas, including the Department of Business and Economic Development, the Department of Legislative Services, the Maryland Transit Administration, the State Highway Administration and the Motor Vehicle Administration.
Possible fraud
Though federal authorities have declined to discuss their strategy, emerging details about the case have all the hallmarks of a mail or wire fraud investigation, former federal prosecutors and white-collar criminal attorneys said yesterday. The Maryland U.S. attorney's office used that kind of investigation against former state Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell, who was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison. He began serving that sentence this week.
Under federal criminal law, prosecutors have wide latitude to bring fraud charges against state officials, if the alleged fraud involved the use of U.S. mail, phone, radio or television.
