State Department Bribery

(Washington, D.C.) The U.S. State Department is suffering some embarrassment since one of its professionals has been accused of taking bribes.

From WaPo:

A U.S. diplomat was charged on Friday with accepting trips with exotic dancers, jewelry and entertainment in exchange for issuing visas to 21 people linked to an international jewel distributor.

U.S. Foreign Service officer Michael O'Keefe, 59, and international jeweler Sunil Agrawal were indicted by a grand jury in Washington on three counts of conspiracy and bribery.

O'Keefe, a 22-year State Department veteran who was working at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto as the deputy non-immigrant visa chief, was arrested on Thursday in Washington, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Agrawal remains at large.

The indictment said between 2004 and 2006 Agrawal gave round-trip airline tickets to O'Keefe and two exotic dancers to travel to New York and Las Vegas. Agrawal paid for hotels, expensive meals and entertainment during the trips.

Exotic dancers, expensive meals, trips to Las Vegas -- I wanna be a foreign service worker.

Kidding aside, if the allegations are true, O'Keefe should be hammered in a resoundingly public manner. Also, his fellow diplomats likely could use a reminder of what constitutes acceptable behavior.