It's like watching The Wire, or the Fumo trial.

Today's charges grow out of the operation of the Beaver Initiative for Growth, a Veon-organized economic development program that was funded through state grants.

In June of last year, the Post-Gazette reported that BIG was the subject of a state investigation by the attorney general and quoted one former director as saying he left after becoming uncomfortable with how state development grant monies were handled by Mr. Veon's staff.

"Money was just sort of seen as a kind of arbitrary commodity that could be shifted and flowed wherever needed, regardless of what kind of stipulations were put on it," said John Gallo, who Mr. Veon hired to run BIG between 1999 and 2003, when Mr. Gallo resigned, sensing an impending disaster.