LANSING, Mich. — It’s the kind of court case you don’t hear much about except on court television shows. On Thursday, federal investigators unveiled one of the largest corruption scandals out of Lansing in the last 30 years, and it centers around the cannabis industry in our state.
"Public corruption is a poison to any democracy," said US Attorney Mark Totten.
Totten outlined the case against former Michigan Speaker of the House Rick Johnson and three others at a press conference Thursday. He said that the now 70-year-old Johnson accepted more than $100,000 in bribes in exchange for licenses to create medical marijuana dispensaries in the very early days of the cannabis industry in Michigan.
“Each of these four defendants has signed a plea agreement and admitted to the guilt of these charges, and each of these four defendants are cooperating with our ongoing investigation," said Totten.
The other three defendants are Brian Pierce and Vincent Brown, who are registered lobbyists and were both charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, along with John Dalaly, a businessman is charged with actually paying some of those bribes totaling $68,000, according to Totten.
Officials noted that many of their investigations are kicked off by concerned citizens who are increasingly impatient with issues of corruption.
“There’s a growing intolerance by the American people for public corruption and intolerance reflected in the willingness to come forward and report abuse of public office," said James Tarasca, the special agent in charge with the FBI.
Officials tell FOX 47 they expect a plea hearing for the defendants of this case in the next couple of weeks.
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