State Sen. Ron Calderon Indicted for Corruption

http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/tcrmag/2014/02/2014-02-21a-tcrmag.mp3

On Friday, federal prosecutors charged Los Angeles-area state senator Ron Calderon with 24 counts of corruption, including bribery and influence peddling. Prosecutors also filed seven counts of money laundering against Calderon's brother, Tom. The case involves two conspiracies, one involving a real hospital executive and a second involving an undercover FBI agent. We talk with Sacramento Bureau Chief Scott Detrow who has been following the story.

RACHAEL MYROW: Federal prosecutors unveiled a major health insurance scandal. Can you explain it for us?

SCOTT DETROW: Sure. Michael Drobot was the executive of a Southern California hospital, and he is admitting to carrying out these expensive spinal surgeries, really inflating the cost of the material needed for the surgery, and then passing that cost along to insurance providers. California insurance officials say this is the largest health insurance fraud scandal they have ever had to deal with. And the way that Ron Calderon gets looped in is that Michael Drobot, the executive, was allegedly bribing Calderon tens of thousands of dollars for Calderon’s help in blocking legislation that would have put a stop to the scheme that Drobot had set up, this pass-along scheme where they were bilking insurance companies out of extra money here.

MYROW: There are so many elements to this case. I was also intrigued by the no-show jobs for Calderon’s son and daughter.

DETROW: Right. Calderon was allegedly receiving about $100,000 in bribes here, and the bulk of that money came through basically ghost jobs that he set up for his children. His daughter had a job where she worked for this FBI agent. She got a fake job at a fake film studio, basically where she was being paid for work she never did. And his son was showing up for summer jobs, getting $10,000 for showing up once or twice each summer for a few weeks working at this Long Beach hospital.

MYROW: So Tom Calderon has already given himself up. Ron Calderon is expected to give himself up to the authorities on Monday, but this investigation is not over. Who else is in the target sights of the FBI?

DETROW: Boy, it’s hard to tell, and that’s a question that everyone here in Sacramento has been wondering for months, as the details drift out in a leaked document here and a raid there. There are several lawmakers alluded to in the indictment: Senator A, Senator B, we just don’t know exactly who will be targeted here. But the Department of justice made it clear this is not a closed investigation.

MYROW: And from what we understand, at some point Ron Calderon agreed to wear a wire?

DETROW: According to federal prosecutors, Ron Calderon went to Las Vegas thinking that he was going on one of these boondoggles that were being paid for by one of the undercover FBI agents. He shows up at the Bellagio and gets to his hotel room, only to be met by FBI agents who tell him, 'Here’s the deal, we’re the FBI and we’re investigating you.' Calderon met with these agents several times before his office was ever raided, and according to these documents a couple times he did wear a wire and record conversations with other lawmakers.

MYROW: A major political drama involving a dynasty from Southern California. "The California Report’s" Sacramento Bureau Chief Scott Detrow is going to be watching this as it unfolds. Thank you so much.

DETROW: Anytime.

More: Read the full story (News Fix)