Birmingham, ALABAMA

CONVICTED
Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford, 63, (D) was convicted on October 28 by a Federal jury on 60 charges ranging from bribery and money laundering to filing false tax returns and fraud. (Full list of counts here.)

The Associated Press reported that "Assistant U.S. Attorney Tamarra Matthews Johnson told jurors in closing arguments that Langford was heavily in debt and accepted the gifts from [Bill] Blount, along with checks or loan payoffs through a middleman, lobbyist Al LaPierre. Both Blount and LaPierre pleaded guilty in the scheme and testified against Langford."

The AP noted that "Langford is a Democrat and longtime friend of Blount, a former chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party. LaPierre worked for years as the party's executive director."

The Birmingham News editorialized on the conviction.

The Langford bribery case was just the latest in a long line of criminal cases arising from the county's bloated, mismanaged, corruption-plagued sewer overhaul. About two dozen people have been convicted, including three former commissioners before Langford. (One of them, Gary White, has asked for and been granted a new trial.) The county is still trying to find a way to pay the sewer debt without having to file the country's largest municipal bankruptcy.

JP Morgan Chase has agreed to forfeit $647 million in swap termination fees, to pay the county $50 million and to pay the SEC a $25 million fine for steering the county into risky financing schemes and interest rate swaps so they could reap millions of dollars in fees.

At least seven former JPMorgan bankers are under scrutiny in a Justice Department criminal antitrust investigation of the sale of unregulated derivatives to local governments across the U.S., federal regulatory records show.

The city, with its 74% black majority, remains $3.2 billion in debt. Blount, 55, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of bribery and agreed to forfeit $1 million, will be sentenced on January 7th, 2010. LaPierre pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and to filing a false tax return. No sentencing date has been set.