Inside the L.A. County Fed: Humbled by racist leak, fearful more tapes might be out there
A member of the L.A. County Federal Reserve Bank’s auditing staff is being questioned by federal authorities over a racially charged leak.
A member of the L.A. County Federal Reserve Bank’s auditing staff is being questioned by federal authorities over a racially charged leak.
An internal audit leaked to the New York Times detailing how the Federal Reserve Bank of Los Angeles under-reported racial bias in a report on financial reports of police officers. The investigation found that black officers received fewer training and were subject to a higher percentage of disciplinary actions than they were expected to receive.
The Times story on the internal audit of the bank, published Friday, was followed up by the Department of Justice on the leak — and by a federal district court lawsuit filed by the bank to the United States Department of Justice. The court case is scheduled for trial later in March.
“We are trying to discover exactly what happened and figure out the best way to deal with it,” Brian Dunn, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said during a press conference in Washington.
Dunn said federal authorities were investigating whether the leak was “staged” to make the audit appear more negative than it actually was. The agency said it would subpoena bank employees to talk about the investigation.
The Times, citing bank officials, reported in Friday’s story that bank employees were questioned about the leak. The officials spoke conditionally on the record, the newspaper said.
The Times also issued a correction to a previous version of the article, saying an internal audit was not referenced in the original.
In December, the Times reported that a federal watchdog was interviewing officials at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis about a $10 million loan granted to a white police officer who is now serving a prison sentence for sexual assaulting a black teenager.
The Times said the bank loan to former Officer Robert Beauregard — a former LAPD officer who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in 2014 — was granted the week before his sentencing. Beauregard, who had been employed by the St. Louis Fed while he was a Los Angeles police officer, took advantage