SIOUX FALLS — An old hand at investigating government corruption had one piece of advice for the FBI, which admitted yesterday (Wednesday) that it had an “active” investigation ongoing into South Dakota EB-5 scandal — follow the money.

Retired FBI agent John Good, the agent in charge of the Bureau’s Abscam stings in the 1970s, made the comment today (Thursday) while appearing on behalf of independent U.S. Senate candidate Larry Pressler.

“It’s always the case you follow the money, you know?” Good said.

Good also said he and fellow agents knew after a few minutes during the Abscam sting that Pressler, then a U.S. Senator, was honest and cut short the conversation in order to get him out of the town house where the sting was performed.

While Good has been retired for 28 years from the FBI and says he doesn’t know for sure what a modern “active” investigation might look like and hadn’t heard of the EB-5 scandal before coming to South Dakota, he said that governmental corruption or “pay to play” at all levels has only gotten worse since the 1970s.

At the news conference Thursday, Pressler said the first bill he’d introduce would be to ban lobbyists from providing U.S. Senators and Representatives with campaign contributions or honorariums.

“What I am trying to do is to craft a bill that would take the stream of money away from lobbyists,” Pressler said. “You’d still have lobbyist and they’d still be well paid by their labor union or their company or whatever, but they would not be able to participate in the giving of money, in one form or another, to members of Congress.”

Pressler and Good are scheduled to hold news conferences in Watertown, Aberdeen and Rapid City Friday on the topic of governmental corruption.

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