Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who announced her resignation from office earlier today, may be facing a federal indictment for embezzlement, according to Huffington Post blogger Shannyn Moore
Moore is reporting that the so-called "iceberg scandal" involves the use of Wasilla Sports Complex building materials for Palin's residence during her tenure as mayor.
According to Moore, "Both structures, it is said, feature the same windows, same wood, and same products."
The Daily Kos says federal investigators have been looking into this for some time, and indictments could be imminent.
Max Blumenthal, writing for The Daily Beast, said Alaska political circles are abuzz about a building contractor called Spenard Builders Supplies, which has close ties to Palin and her husband, Todd. According to Blumenthal, federal investigators have been seizing paperwork from SBS in recent months, searching for evidence that Palin and her husband Todd steered lucrative contracts to the well-connected company in exchange for gifts like the construction of their home on pristine Lake Lucille in 2002. The home was built just two months before Palin began campaigning for governor, a job which would have provided her enhanced power to grant building contracts in the wide-open state.
According to Blumenthal, just months before Palin left Wasilla to campaign for governor, she awarded a contract to SBS to help build the $13 million Wasilla Sports Complex. The most expensive building project in Wasilla history, the complex cost the city an additional $1.3 million in legal fees and threw it into severe long-term debt. For SBS, however, the bloated and bungled project was a cash cow.
Spenard Builders Supplies is apparently connected to Palin's "good family friend" Eddie Burke, a local radio shock jock and self-described "homophobic, bible thumping Nazi, gay bashing, tea bagging, racist, white guy bigot." Burke showed up at a recent state Assembly meeting in Anchorage protesting an ordinance banning discrimination against the LGBT community:
Eddie Burke
Alaskan blogger Linda Kellen-Biegel ran a successful fundraising campaign to earn $6000.00 to obtain emails between Palin's office and Burke under the Freedom of Information Act. The emails were expected to be made public in the next few days.
Andrea Mitchell reported on MSNBC that, according to "people very close to Sarah Palin," she has "told her supporters that she is out of politics, period. She is fed up with politics. She doesn't like her life. She feels that she needs to raise her family.
More updates to come as this story develops.
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