A California state senator has been indicted on federal charges that he accepted some $100,000 in cash bribes from a businessman and undercover FBI agents in connection with legislation, prosecutors said on Friday, according to the Associated Press.
Democrat Ron Calderon, 56, has agreed to turn himself in on Monday to face charges including mail fraud, wire fraud, bribery, conspiracy, money laundering in the 24-count indictment, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, the AP reported.
Calderon's brother, Tom Calderon, a former member of the California State Assembly, was also named in the U.S. District Court indictment and charged with money laundering, according to the AP.
Tom Calderon has already surrendered to authorities and was expected to face an arraignment later on Friday, Mrozek said, the AP reported.
"Public corruption is a betrayal of the public trust that threatens the integrity of our democratic institutions," U.S. Attorney André Birotte said in a statement, according to the AP.
"Senator Calderon is accused of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes and using the powers of his elected office to enrich himself and his brother Tom, rather than for the benefit of the public he was sworn to serve," Birotte said, the AP reported.
The indictment charges Ron Calderon with accepting bribes from the former owner of a Long Beach, California, hospital and from undercover FBI agents who Calderon believed were associated with an independent film studio, according to the AP. If convicted, both men could face lengthy prison sentences.
In June, FBI agents searched Calderon's offices as part of an investigation into what the agency described only as "allegations of criminal activity," the AP reported.
An FBI affidavit obtained by Al Jazeera America showed that the agency was investigating accusations that Calderon accepted some $88,000 in bribes from an undercover agent and hospital executive, according to the AP.
In November, Calderon was removed from the executive board of the California Latino Caucus and from his legislative committee assignments during the investigation, the AP reported.
