Providence, RI??– ??The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity (Center) decried the unwillingness of the Rhode Island State Police and the Office of Attorney General to release the names of those “officials who knew” ahead of time that the money designated by the General Assembly was earmarked for the fateful 38 Studios scheme.
The Center renews the call it and other good government groups made last year for the Governor to conduct an independent investigation.??
The Center for years has maintained that the true accountability for the 38 Studios scandal was likely to be more of a political nature than of a criminal nature. The political cover-up seen today should not be accepted because there were no criminal charges.??
While the Center trusts the judgment of the State Police and the AG not to recommend or file criminal charges, it is “outrageous that they would participate in a political whitewash by not releasing the names of those officials,” argued Mike Stenhouse, CEO for the Center. “The larger lesson of this debacle, which our Center has also consistently maintained, is that insider corporate welfare deals such as 38 Studios -deals perpetuated even more vigorously on a smaller level by the current administration – are not a legitimate approach to economic development. It is now time for the Governor to make good on her promise to initiate an independent investigation – a political investigation.”
The Center also questions whether all 38 Studios investigations and questioning occurred via the secret grand jury deliberations; whether or not any other information was independently obtained; whether the grand jury was part of the original plan to give legal cover to unethically involved politicians; and whether the technicality of keeping the case open is just a furtherance of that legal cover.??
About the Center
The nonpartisan RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity is Rhode Island’s premiere free-enterprise research and advocacy organization. The nonprofit Center is funded entirely by private tax-deductible??donations and never accepts public funding. The mission of the 501-C-3 organization is to return government to the people by opposing special-interest politics and advancing proven free-market solutions that can transform lives by restoring economic competitiveness, increasing educational opportunities, and protecting individual freedoms.