Oregon prides itself on its perceived lack of corruption in state and local government. The case of Fred Monem is a prominent clue that the perception may be wrong and the pride misplaced.

Another recent clue: Brent Crosson, the former chief accountant in the Department of Education who turned out to be a million-dollar embezzler. This past summer was sent to federal prison for two years.

The latest case is that of Monem, the former food services administrator at the Oregon Department of Corrections in Salem. According to a federal indictment handed down last year, he ran a kickback scheme involving the purchase of prison food from 2000 until he was fired in July 2007. He was indicted that October.

Over those seven years, this state official managed to amass $1.3 million in kickback payments from vendors selling food to the prison system.

On Wednesday in federal court in Eugene, Karen Monem, 45, of Salem, pleaded guilty to money laundering for helping her husband hide the proceeds of his crimes.

She admitted that at her husband's request she had opened bank accounts in the name of her mother at three separate banks and, from 2001 through 2006, deposited more than $160,000 in those accounts. In June 2005, the government says, she spent some of the money to buy a house at Seal Rock on the coast.

Mrs. Monem will be sentenced on Jan. 29, and she faces up to 10 years in federal prison. She has already forfeited to the government more than $700,000 in cash, a $50,000 certificate of deposit, a 2006 BMW, a 2007 GMC Denali and a 2006 Silverado pickup.

The real estate purchased with the kickback money has already been forfeited to the state.

Four vendors who paid Monem to steer contracts their way have pleaded guilty and also will be sentenced in January.

From the size of the scheme and its long duration, it is obvious that this was no little bit of larceny. And yet it went undetected for a long time, which doesn't say much for the internal processes of the Corrections Department, much less the oversight function that one would think the secretary of state, as chief auditor, would perform.

After he was caught, the justice system did not make sure that the bribe taker in this case was punished. He remained free and disappeared. The government believes he now lives in Iran, where he was born.

The next time investigators finally snare a big-time crook on the public payroll and and a prize betrayer of the public trust, they had better ask for bail so high that he can't get out of jail before his case comes up in court.

More to the point: Two big-time crooks way up in state government in one year. We should be glad they were caught but wonder how they got hired. (hh)