{"id":27491,"date":"2016-10-21T17:46:31","date_gmt":"2016-10-22T00:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27491"},"modified":"2016-10-21T17:50:20","modified_gmt":"2016-10-22T00:50:20","slug":"former-california-state-senator-sentenced-to-more-than-three-years-for-bribery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27491","title":{"rendered":"Former California State Senator Sentenced to More than Three Years for Bribery"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>LOS ANGELES<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"U.S.A federal judge sentenced former California State Senator Ron S. Calderon<\/strong> on Friday to 3\u00bd years in federal prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

Calderon plead guilty to a federal corruption charge, admitting that he accepted tens of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for performing official acts as a legislator, according to officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder also ordered Calderon, 59, to serve 150 hours of community service.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ron Calderon plead guilty in June to one count of mail fraud through the deprivation of honest services. <\/span><\/p>\n

In a plea agreement filed in this case, Ron Calderon admitted accepting bribe payments from the owner of a Long Beach hospital who wanted a law to remain in effect so he could continue to reap tens of millions of dollars in illicit profits from a health care fraud scheme. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ron Calderon also admitted taking bribes from undercover FBI agents who were posing as independent filmmakers who wanted changes to California\u2019s Film Tax Credit program.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ron Calderon\u2019s brother, Thomas M. Calderon, 62, also of Montebello, a former member of the California State Assembly who became a<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Molina,
<\/span> Tom Calderon<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

political consultant, was sentenced last month to 10 months in custody for his conviction on a money laundering charge for allowing bribe money earmarked for his brother to be funneled through his company.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cFormer Senator Calderon repeatedly violated the trust of the voters by taking nearly $160,000 in bribes in exchange for abusing his position as an elected official,\u201d said United States Attorney Eileen M. Decker. \u201cThe Calderons are now being punished for their roles in a bribery scheme that involved multiple forms of payments, as well as the attempted concealment of the scheme through money laundering and lies made to residents of his district. Politicians who violate their oaths by selling their offices will be discovered and will be prosecuted.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cMr. Calderon used the power of the state Senate to dole out favors in exchange for bribe payments and a flashy lifestyle, rather than governing honestly for the people of California,\u201d said Deirdre Fike, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI\u2019s Los Angeles Field Office. \u201cI\u2019m proud of the agents and prosecutors who made this case a success using innovative techniques to uncover a variety of schemes and abject corruption by a state official.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cAt the heart of this case are two brothers \u2013 one a politician, the other the facilitator \u2013 who thought they were above the law and could exchange political favors for bribery payments,\u201d stated IRS Criminal Investigation\u2019s Acting Special Agent in Charge, Anthony J. Orlando.<\/span><\/p>\n

Adding, \u201cRegardless of circumstances, no one is granted an exemption to commit crimes with impunity. As today\u2019s sentence shows, the government will hold accountable those who use fraud and deceit to line their pockets with money, especially when those individuals are serving the California public.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ron Calderon admitted participating in a bribery scheme involving two areas of legislation and the hiring of a staffer who was also an undercover FBI agent, according to authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the first part of the bribery scheme, Ron Calderon took bribes from Michael Drobot, the former owner of Pacific Hospital in Long Beach, which was a major provider of spinal surgeries that were often paid by workers\u2019 compensation programs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The spinal surgeries are at the center of a massive healthcare fraud scheme that Drobot orchestrated and to which he previously pleaded guilty.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"DepartmentRon Calderon was not charged in the healthcare fraud scheme that led to well over $500 million in fraudulent billings. Drobot, who was described in court papers filed by prosecutors as \u201ca greedy fraudster robbing taxpayer-funded federal programs,\u201d was a client of Tom Calderon\u2019s political consulting firm.<\/span><\/p>\n

California law known as the \u201cspinal pass-through\u201d legislation allowed a hospital to pass on to insurance companies the full cost it had paid for medical hardware it used during spinal surgeries.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Drobot admitted in court, his hospital exploited this law, typically by using hardware that had been purchased at highly-inflated prices from companies that Drobot controlled and passing this cost along to insurance providers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Drobot bribed Ron Calderon so that he would use his public office to preserve this law that helped Drobot maintain a long-running and lucrative healthcare fraud scheme, which included Ron Calderon asking a fellow senator to introduce legislation favorable to Drobot and attempting to recruit other senators to support Drobot.<\/span><\/p>\n

The payments from Drobot came in the form of summer employment for Ron Calderon\u2019s son, who was hired as a summer file clerk at Pacific Hospital and received a total of $30,000 over the course of three years, despite the son doing little actual work at the hospital.<\/span><\/p>\n

In another part of the bribery scheme, Ron Calderon accepted bribes from people he thought were associated with an independent film studio, but who were in fact undercover FBI agents.<\/span><\/p>\n

In exchange for the payments \u2013 including $30,000 in payments to Ron Calderon\u2019s daughter for services she never provided \u2013 Ron Calderon agreed to support an expansion of a state law that gave tax credits to studios that produced independent films in California.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Film Tax Credit applied to productions of at least $1 million, but, in exchange for bribes, Ron Calderon agreed to support new legislation to reduce this threshold to $750,000, according to the plea agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ron Calderon took several official actions with respect to reducing the threshold for the Film Tax Credit. Ron Calderon signed a letter on his official Senate letterhead indicating that he would propose legislation lowering the threshold, introduced a \u201cspot bill\u201d he told an undercover agent would be used to propose such legislation, and promised that he would vote in favor of that proposed legislation.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to the payments to his daughter for work she did not do, Ron Calderon had one of the undercover agents make a $5,000 payment toward his son\u2019s college tuition and a $25,000 payment to Californians for Diversity, a non-profit entity that Ron Calderon and his brother used to improperly pay themselves, according to officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a sentencing memorandum filed with the court, prosecutors write that Ron Calderon \u201csold his vote not just to help pay for the expenses of living beyond his means, but for the more banal and predictable aims of corruption -\u2013 fancy luxuries, fancy parties, and fancy people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"FBIThe memorandum further argues that a significant term of imprisonment was necessary to send a message to other political officials and the electorate because, without such a sentence, \u201cthe trust already eroded by individual detections of corrupt politicians will spread like cancer and threaten the fundamentals of a trusted democracy. \u00a0It is not hyperbole to insist that nothing less is at stake in defendant\u2019s sentencing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As part of the agreement with the undercover agents, Ron Calderon performed official acts that led to the hiring of another undercover agent as a staffer in his district office at an annual salary of $45,105.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ron Calderon \u201cknowingly concealed his bribery scheme from the public by submitting a false Statement of Economic Interest, California Form 700, to the California Fair Political Practices Commission, which failed to disclose the money and other financial benefits defendant he had received from Drobot\u201d and the undercover agents, Ron Calderon admitted in his plea agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tom Calderon pleaded guilty to money laundering and admitted that he agreed to conceal bribe payments for his brother from the two undercover FBI agents by having the money go through his company, the Calderon Group, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tom Calderon allowed payments to be made to the Calderon Group \u201cto conceal and disguise the fact that the money represented the proceeds of bribery,\u201d according to his plea agreement.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 LOS ANGELES\u00a0 A federal judge sentenced former California State Senator Ron S. Calderon on Friday to 3\u00bd years in federal prison. Calderon plead guilty to a federal corruption charge, admitting that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[307,3105],"class_list":["post-27491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-bribery","tag-calderon"],"yoast_head":"\nEx-State Senator Sentenced to Prison for Bribery, Brother Also Guilty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former California State Senator was sentenced Friday in federal court to three years and six months in prison after he plead guilty to bribery.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=27491\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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