Jimmy Dimora emerges as tipster in FBI Cuyahoga County corruption probe

CLEVELAND - A well-known target of the ongoing public corruption probe in Cuyahoga County is inviting the FBI to investigate more alleged corruption involving millions in taxpayer waste.

During Thursday's regular commissioner meeting, County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora publicly asked the FBI to investigate $21 million worth of voting machines that have sat in a warehouse and have never been used.

WEB EXTRA: Watch unedited video of the tipster's rant by clicking on the video player.

The electronic voting machines were found to be unreliable and the county moved to paper ballots instead.

Meanwhile, taxpayers have been stuck with the bill -- and more than 6,000 voting machines and 5,000 printers.

"Twenty million dollars in wasted taxpayer money that we know was not a good thing," said Dimora. "Possibly could have been some contract steering."

Dimora, who admits he is currently the target of the federal corruption probe, went on to challenge federal investigators to understand and look into the voting machine purchases.

"All of our good friends in law enforcement who are monitoring the daily activities in county government understand what kind of loss we are going to take," said Dimora.

The machines will now be sold to other election officials around the country for as little has half-off the original cost.

"I am just appalled that nothing has ever been done," said Dimora, referring to what he calls a lack of investigation into taxpayer waste.

"Nobody ever investigates this. And obviously the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office are busy looking at "reference letters" and things of those important magnitude when these kinds of millions of dollars were squandered away."