Larry Langford, the mayor Alabama’s largest city Birmingham, has been arrested on charges of steering millions of dollars of bond work to a friend in exchange for more than US$230,000 in bribes that paid his debts for flashy clothes, jewelry and Rolex watches.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.
Larry Langford, the mayor of Alabama’s largest city, has been arrested on charges of steering millions of dollars of bond work to a friend in exchange for more than US$230,000 in bribes that paid his debts for flashy clothes, jewelry and Rolex watches.
The bond deals — which funded years of work on a substandard county sewer system — went sour and have helped push surrounding Jefferson County to the brink of filing the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Federal prosecutors said Langford, Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre were charged in a 101-count indictment. The charges also include conspiracy, money laundering and filing false tax returns.
The charges stem from Langford’s time on the Jefferson County Commission, which he left after being elected mayor in a landslide last year.
Langford, arrested by FBI agents at a beer distributor where he also has a public relations job, appeared in federal court in leg irons and pleaded not guilty through his lawyer.
“I’m going to work today,” Langford told reporters outside the courthouse after being freed on US$50,000 bond. A Democrat, Langford has said for months that he expected to be indicted in what he referred to as a witchhunt by Republican prosecutors.
U.S. Attorney Alice Martin said the charges were about public corruption, not partisanship.
“It was a classic pay-to-play scheme,” said Martin.
She said Langford, 62, needed money because of a “crushing personal debt” stemming from lavish purchases of jewelry, high-priced watches and a wardrobe of clothes from exclusive men’s stores.
The indictment said Blount paid Langford US$235,000 in bribes, sometimes with the money routed through LaPierre, to influence the bond deals that earned Blount’s firm US$7.1 million in fees. Some money went straight to Langford, while thousands went to pay off Langford’s debts, prosecutors charged.
The indictment also says Blount paid US$219,500 to LaPierre for his help.
Jefferson County is trying to avoid filing bankruptcy over US$3.2 billion in bond debt, which would nearly double the record for a municipal bankruptcy of US$1.7 billion set in 1994 by Orange County, California.
The sewer bonds went sour as the mortgage crisis hit and banks tightened up on lending, sending credit costs for the bonds skyrocketing.
The mayor’s chief of staff said city business would go on as usual.
Associated Press
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