Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Former state Senator Ron Calderon will plead guilty to mail fraud

Latest: Corruption and Money Laundering.

Former state Senator Ron Calderon will plead guilty to mail fraud.




LOS ANGELES – Former state Sen. Ron Calderon has agreed to plead guilty to one count of mail fraud in a federal corruption case that also involved his brother, Tom Calderon, another former state lawmaker.
U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors will seek a penalty of five years and 10 months against Calderon, the 58-year-old Democrat who represented Montebello in the state Assembly from 2002 to 2006 and in the state Senate from 2006 to 2014.
Attorneys with the DOJ also agreed to dismiss the other 23 counts of public corruption, mail fraud, wire fraud, bribery and money laundering.
However, U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder could sentence Calderon up to 20 years in prison and fine him $250,000, the statutory maximum for the offense.
Mark Geragos, Ron Calderon’s attorney, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.
Tom Calderon, a former state Assemblyman from Montebello, last week pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering. Federal prosecutors agreed to seek a sentence of no more than a year in his deal.
In the plea agreement, Ron Calderon admitted to accepting bribes from Michael Drobot Sr., former CEO of Pacific Hospital of Long Beach, who hoped to reap millions of dollars in illicit profits from a separate fraud scheme. Ron Calderon also admitted to accepting bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as independent filmmakers who wanted changes to California’s Film Tax Credit program.
Some of those payments were sent by mail.
“Public officials who engage in corrupt behavior threaten the basic fabric of our democracy,” sai

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