"Corruptus in Extremis"
This Democrat pig had his snout shoved deep in the trough.
(Sacramento Bee) - State Sen. Ron Calderon accepted about $88,000 in bribes from an undercover FBI agent posing as a film studio owner and a Southern California hospital executive during a wide-ranging probe into his conduct as a legislator, according to a 124-page affidavit published online Wednesday by cable news network Al Jazeera America.
No charges have been filed against Calderon, a Democrat from Montebello. His attorney, Mark Geragos, did not return calls Wednesday.
The federal affidavit, filed as the FBI sought a search warrant for Calderon’s office, alleges that he worked with interest groups in a pay-to-play fashion, accepting money in exchange for promises to carry or amend legislation to their benefit.
“One way you could be a real help to (my daughter) is, you got any work?” Calderon said to an undercover agent posing as the film studio owner during a June 2012 dinner in Pico Rivera, according to the affidavit.
“I told you, man, anything you can do, any help you could do for my kids is, is – you know that’s, that’s diamonds for me. That’s diamonds.”
The agent was asking Calderon to change California’s tax credit program for filmmakers so that smaller productions would qualify for the credit. Under a bill Calderon carried in 2009 and an extension passed in 2012, productions that cost at least $1 million and are shot in California can enter a lottery to get a tax break. The affidavit describes Calderon talking to the undercover agent about getting the threshold lowered to $750,000.
I doubt Calderon will remain anal retentive for long
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| The FBI raids Calderon's office. |
In August 2012, the agent told Calderon at a meeting that he had put Jessica Calderon on the payroll of his film studio to help the senator and that he hoped Calderon could help him in return by trying to alter the bill.
Calderon said he could be helpful, and reminded the agent that Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg supported lowering the threshold.
“That is why it is all about relationships,” Calderon told the undercover agent, according to the affidavit.
After the undercover agent boasted to Ron Calderon about securing $50,000 a year from a three-picture deal, the two discussed what to do with the windfall.
“I mean, if there is something that you think that I can do to help you out with that fifty each year, you tell me. And, I will set it up,” the agent said, to which Ron Calderon, according to the affidavit, replied, “Right.”
Over time, Calderon drew down the $50,000 by asking for a $3,900 deposit into the Ron Calderon for Controller 2014 committee; a $25,000 infusion for his brother’s nonprofit, Californians for Diversity; and money to cover Calderon’s airfare to Miami, the affidavit states.
For the full article go to Sacramento Bee
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| The Los Angeles County based Senate District 30 includes the cities of Bell, Bell Gardens, Commerce, Cudahy, East La Mirada, Huntington Park, La Mirada, Montebello, Norwalk, Pico Rivera, Santa Fe Springs, Whittier, and South El Monte. The district also includes parts of East Los Angeles, Los Angeles and South Gate, and the communities of Florence-Graham and Hacienda Heights. |
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