MBTA kickback schemes (original) (raw)

Between 1980 and 1981, Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Chairman Barry Locke and the Assistant Director of the MBTA's Real Estate Department Frank J. Walters, Jr. ran a number of kickback schemes at the MBTA. The kickbacks were discovered when newly appointed MBTA General Manager James O'Leary accidentally opened an envelope meant for Locke that contained the proceeds from one of the schemes. A total of seventeen people and one corporation were indicted for their roles in kickback schemes at the MBTA. Locke was convicted of five counts of bribery and sentenced to 7 to 10 years in prison. Locke is the only Massachusetts cabinet secretary to be convicted of a felony while in office since the state's adoption of the cabinet system