ATLANTA - Prosecutors yesterday announced that a federal grand jury has returned anindictment accusing former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell on a myriad of charges, includingcorruption and tax charges.
The 48-page criminal indictment, filed on Aug. 18 and unsealed yesterday, listed sevencounts that address alleged corruption by Campbell from 1996 through 2004. The U.S.attorney for the northern District of Georgia, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, andthe Internal Revenue Service brought the charges.
The indictment did not involve any of the city's bond deals during the Campbell era from1996 through 2002, during which there was more than $2 billion in city issuance.
The charges include racketeering, corruption, bribery and tax fraud.
Campbell is accused of accepting payments from city contractors; concealing financialbenefits he received from contractors, soliciting and accepting illegal campaigncontributions, defrauding campaign donors and creditors, and filing false tax returns.
Prosecutors also focused on alleged misconduct related to a $20 million water systemprivatization deal that was inked during Campbell's administration in order to generatecost savings to allow the city to increase its bonding authority. After the contractwith United Water was signed in 1998, the city went on to sell about $1 billion of waterand wastewater revenue bonds.
Current Mayor Shirley Franklin last year terminated the contract with United Water,saying the projected cost savings from privatizing the city's water system have nevermaterialized.
"I have been apprised of the indictment of former Mayor Campbell," Franklin said. "I amshocked and dismayed by the allegations. I have asked the city attorney to review theindictment with regard to the legal implications for the city of Atlanta."
The indictment states that seven months after signing the contract with the watercompany, Campbell and his chief operating officer, Larry Wallace, accepted benefitstotaling more than $12,900 for hotel rooms and a car and driver for Campbell, as well asa personal friend, for a trip to Paris.
Between 1999 and 2001, the water company incurred expenses in operating the water systemthat were not contemplated when the contract was signed, according to the indictment. Itsought more money from the city to cover these expenses by drafting agreements forCampbell to sign, the indictment states. Those letters were allegedly subsequentlymailed, with Campbell's signature.
Wallace pleaded guilty to bribery and tax fraud.
Campbell has steadfastly denied all of the allegations and earlier this month submittedto a lie detector test in which the examiner, a former FBI agent, said he showed nosigns of deception in answering questions related to the probe. He restated hisinnocence yesterday, saying the five-year federal probe, which he has called a witchhunt, has cast a shadow over his reputation, but he was confident he would bevindicated.
The next step will be a hearing before a federal magistrate court judge.
