“When public officials choose to callously betray the trust of the people they serve, and selfishly line their pockets, then it’s up to us to take the steps responsible to make sure we hold these individuals accountable,” said U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte when he announced Calderon’s indictment.

And federal agents have certainly been taking a lot of those steps lately. The two cases feature numerous agents going undercover, posing as shady businessmen and movie producers and bribing lawmakers for official favors. Yee allegedly delivered Senate proclamations, set up meetings with other legislators and made calls to state agencies on behalf of the undercover agents — in addition to allegedly participating in a scheme to help an undercover agent buy weapons. Calderon allegedly pushed to lower a film tax credit threshold he thought would help an agent posing as an independent film producer.

The day agents raided Calderon's office, Yee warned an associate to “be really, real careful. Got to double check, triple check everything.” Unfortunately for Yee, federal agents were listening in on that conversation.

According to court documents, the FBI spent nearly $70,000 bribing Yee. And the FBI says it delivered nearly $90,000 to Calderon. Here's a breakdown of the payments described in the complaints against the two senators:

Alleged Payments To Yee

Amount	Date	Description	Alleged Quid-Pro-Quo	Page
$500	9/21/2011	Mayoral campaign contribution	None stated	104
$5,000	10/11/2011	Mayoral campaign contribution	None stated	105
$5,000	4/27/2012	Mayoral campaign contribution	Help for software company	108
$10,000	11/19/2012	Cash for Yee's mayoral campaign	None stated	24
$2,500	3/20/2013	Cash	Introductions to other lawmakers	123
$3,000	4/29/2013	Cash	Introductions to other lawmakers	126
$5,000	5/6/2013	Secretary of State campaign contribution	Senate Proclamation	25
$5,000	5/17/2013	Cash	Introductions to other lawmakers	128
$11,000	6/22/2013	Cash	Introductions to other lawmakers	25
$1,800	7/11/2013	Secretary of State campaign contribution	Senate Proclamation	25
$10,000	9/17/2013	Cash	Introductions to other lawmakers	25
$5,000	10/13/2013	Mayoral campaign contribution	None stated	105
$5,000	12/17/2013	Secretary of State campaign contribution	International weapons purchases	81
$1,000	1/24/2014	Cash	International weapons purchases	85

Alleged Payments To Calderon

Amount	Date	Description	Page	Alleged Quid-Pro-Quo
$3,000	7/19/2012	Ghost job paycheck for Calderon's daughter	10 (indict.)	Lowering film tax credit threshold
$3,000	8/1/2012	Ghost job paycheck for Calderon's daughter	10 (indict.)	Lowering film tax credit threshold
$3,000	9/8/2012	Ghost job paycheck for Calderon's daughter	10 (indict.)	Lowering film tax credit threshold
$3,000	9/28/2012	Ghost job paycheck for Calderon's daughter	10 (indict.)	Lowering film tax credit threshold
$4,000	10/30/2012	VIP Las Vegas table reservation for Calderon	51 (affad.)	Lowering film tax credit threshold
$3,000	11/1/2012	Ghost job paycheck for Calderon's daughter	10 (indict.)	Lowering film tax credit threshold
$5,000	11/20/2012	Tuition check for Calderon's son	72 (affad.)	Calderon hires undercover agent
$3,000	12/1/2012	Ghost job paycheck for Calderon's daughter	10 (indict.)	Lowering film tax credit threshold
$5,000	12/6/2012	Calderon-requested campaign contribution to Kevin de Leon	57 (affad.)	Lowering film tax credit threshold
$3,000	1/1/2013	Ghost job paycheck for Calderon's daughter	10 (indict.)	Lowering film tax credit threshold
$25,000	1/15/2013	Payment to Calderon-tied nonprofit	15 (indict.)	Calderon hires undercover agent
$3,900	1/15/2013	Calderon campaign contribution	75 (affad.)	Calderon hires undercover agent
$3,000	2/2/2013	Ghost job paycheck for Calderon's daughter	10 (indict.)	Lowering film tax credit threshold
$3,000	3/2/2013	Ghost job paycheck for Calderon's daughter	10 (indict.)	Lowering film tax credit threshold
$3,200	3/9/2013	Calderon campaign contribution	76 (affad.)	Calderon hires undercover agent
$3,000	3/26/2013	Cash to Calderon	62 (affad.)	Lowering film tax credit threshold
$3,000	3/27/2013	Ghost job paycheck for Calderon's daughter	10 (indict.)	Lowering film tax credit threshold
$9,000	4/18/2013	Ghost job paycheck for Calderon's daughter	10 (indict.)	Lowering film tax credit threshold

These types of sting operations can generate criticism — that the FBI is setting lawmakers up or even wasting taxpayer dollars. Former agent James Wedick said Thursday he disagrees with that.

“Without those operations you’re not going to find out that you’ve got corrupt individuals doing bad things — stealing money from the public,” he said.

Wedick ran the “Shrimp Scam” investigation in the 1980s. FBI agents bribed state lawmakers into carving out tax breaks for their phony shrimp company and creating legislation that actually made it to Gov. George Deukmejian’s desk. “At that time we needed to inform him that the two measures were bogus and it was an FBI operation,” Wedick recalled. “He … could not believe it.” Deukmejian vetoed both bills.

False fronts and FBI-initiated bribes are necessary, Wedick argues, because there’s typically little or no evidence when actual bribes take place. “The conversations, if there are conversations about payments of monies, are usually one-on-one. And so without the kind of evidence where a conversation is heard, it’s one person’s word against another’s,” he said.

And as for scrutiny, he says these public corruption investigations don’t move forward without scores of meetings with higher-ups at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. The stakes are high — the agents are tinkering with public policy and can ruin careers even if they never bring any charges. On top of that, Wedick says the bureau is mindful that legislative sting operations boil down to “one branch of government, the executive branch, messing with, as you say, another branch of government. The executive branch naturally does not want to do that.”

Yee’s arrest came on the same day the FBI raided a New York legislator’s office and arrested the mayor of Charlotte, N.C. Wedick says the agency may be giving more attention to corruption issues, after a decade focused on terrorism threats. Stanford Law School Professor Robert Weisberg agrees. “It may well be that the FBI now feels it needs to get back to more of its conventional law enforcement, and can do so,” he said.

Weisberg adds the FBI may have other motivations in going after lawmakers.

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Money Talks: The FBI's Bribe Strategy in Yee, Calderon Cases