From Bloomberg and check this one out, too.  Oh, and here.  Not for nothing, but does CA have any non-corrupted-fruit-loop politicians?  This is definitely NOT the first time she has come under scrutiny.

House Ethics Panel to Investigate Lawmakers Waters, Richardson

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) — The House ethics committee announced it is investigating two California Democrats, Representatives Maxine Waters and Laura Richardson.

The cases were forwarded to the House panel by the Office of Congressional Ethics, which Congress established in 2008 as part of a series of measures that also included a 2007 law that imposed new reporting rules and restrictions on lobbyists.

The ethics committee said yesterday it was looking at whether Waters, 71, used her position to help Boston-based OneUnited Bank and whether she or her husband, Sidney Williams, personally benefited from her actions. Williams owned stock in the bank and once sat on its board.

The panel had been looking into whether Waters, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, improperly helped arrange a meeting at the U.S. Treasury Department that related to the bank. The New York Times first reported on the meeting in May.

Waters said in a statement that she is “confident that as the investigation moves forward the panel will discover that there are no facts to support allegations” that she acted improperly or violated the “Code of Official Conduct or any law.”

The investigation of Richardson focuses on whether she received special treatment concerning property she owned in Sacramento, California, and whether she failed to properly include assets and liabilities in her annual financial disclosure forms, the committee said.

‘Premature Judgments’

Richardson, 47, said in a statement that she experienced personal crises and living changes in the past year, not unlike other Americans. The difference, she said, was she was “subjected to premature judgments, speculation and baseless distractions that will finally be addressed in a fair, unbiased, bipartisan evaluation of the facts.â€

The panel also announced yesterday that a Republican lawmaker, Representative Sam Graves of Missouri, didn’t violate any rules when he invited his wife’s business partner to testify before the House Small Business Committee.

“The committee considers the matter closed,” Representatives Zoe Lofgren of California and Jo Bonner of Alabama said in reference to Graves, 45. Lofgren, a Democrat, is the committee’s chairwoman; Bonner is its ranking Republican member.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net .