It turns out that Maryland state Senator Ulysses Currie (D), who is being investigated for failing to report his outside employment as a consultant to a company on his official disclosure forms, may have been doing favors for the company since 2003. Shoppers Food Warehouse employed Currie as a consultant, but he never reported that relationship as required by Maryland state law.

An FBI investigation has turned up hundreds of calls between the Senator and company, and many instances where he intervened on their behalf with state officials:

After Currie's home in District Heights was raided May 29, documents and interviews have revealed that the senator repeatedly intervened in issues important to Lanham-based Shoppers Food and Pharmacy, prodding state and local agencies for traffic lights and sitting in on a local liquor board meeting in which a Shoppers store received a beer and wine license over community objections.


According to the affidavit, Currie's phone records showed there was "frequent contact" between his numbers and those of Shoppers representatives, the chief liquor inspector for Prince George's and an attorney for the county liquor board in 2005 and 2006, when the transfer of the liquor license from one Shoppers store to another was under consideration.


"It is my belief that Currie used his official position and influence in connection with such legislation and in certain business transactions involving the state of Maryland in ways that benefited and would have benefited" Shoppers, FBI Special Agent Steven Quisenberry wrote in the affidavit.