{"id":89309,"date":"2013-11-06T11:16:26","date_gmt":"2013-11-06T10:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/ex-us-official-accepts-2-3mn-bribe\/"},"modified":"2013-11-06T11:16:26","modified_gmt":"2013-11-06T10:16:26","slug":"ex-us-official-accepts-2-3mn-bribe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/ex-us-official-accepts-2-3mn-bribe\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-US official \u2018accepts $2.3mn bribe\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

In April, the FBI, the IRS and the district attorney�™s office served search warrants at four council members�™ homes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

US officials say Marcelo Co, a former Moreno Valley City Councilman, agreed Tuesday to plead guilty for taking a $2.3 million bribe from an undercover operative posing as a real estate broker.<\/p>\n

NBC reported that Co had met with the undercover operative who was posing as a real estate broker in the fall of 2012 to discuss the sale of a 30-acre parcel that he owned, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

Co told the broker that once he had control of the City Council he could change the zoning of the property, dramatically increasing the land value, the report said.<\/p>\n

In April, the FBI, the IRS and the district attorney�™s office served search warrants at four council members�™ homes – Mayor Tom Owings, Councilwoman Victoria Baca, and Jesse Molina and Co.<\/p>\n

Co resigned in August following unrelated charges of disability benefit fraud.<\/p>\n

Co was paid up to $15,000 that were said to be used to finance the campaigns of individuals who would vote with him on land use issues, the report said citing officials.<\/p>\n

�œWith the City Council election in November 2012, Co told the broker that he had the votes needed to alter the zoning of the property appraised at $710,000. Co proposed that the broker buy the property for $5.36 million, including a $2.36 million cash payment to Co,” the report said.<\/p>\n

Co accepted the bribe on Jan. 30, 2013 after publicly filing to sell the land for only $3 million.<\/p>\n

He is also facing a false tax return charge. Investigators say he failed to report more than $100,000 in income on 2010 tax return for his company, Qwik Pack Systems.<\/p>\n

For both charges, the 64-year-old man faces up to 13 years in federal prison. His first appearance in court is expected early December.<\/p>\n

ARA\/ARA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: Press TV<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In April, the FBI, the IRS and the district attorney�™s office served search warrants at four council members�™ homes. US officials say Marcelo Co, a former Moreno Valley City Councilman, agreed Tuesday to plead guilty for taking a $2.3 million bribe from an undercover operative posing as a real estate broker. NBC reported that Co […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-89309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}