No Wrongdoing by Brown Seen
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WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury in Miami found no wrongdoing by Commerce Secretary Ron Brown in connection with efforts by the Vietnamese to get a U.S. trade embargo lifted, a government official said late Tuesday.
Another official, also speaking on grounds of anonymity, said it was expected that the Justice Department would soon close its investigation of the Cabinet officer.
The FBI launched a probe early last year into allegations that Brown accepted $700,000 to help lift the trade embargo against Vietnam. The Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section has been overseeing the probe.
The closure of the case would indicate that Brown has been cleared by the investigation.
Brown previously had denied the allegations by Binh T. Ly, a Vietnamese-American businessman, and had predicted he would be exonerated by the probe.
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