Calloway and Hansford, Bribery, Georgia 2013

Two Forsyth City Councilmen, James Edward Calloway and Desi Surtane Hansford, have been found guilty of accepting bribes in exchange for city contracts. The two men, who served on the Combined Utilities Committee, which oversees electric, water, sewer, and telecommunications for the City of Forsyth, solicited and accepted bribes from a water and waste treatment company.

According to the plea agreements, Calloway solicited a bribe of $20,000 from the company on December 27, 2012, to guarantee the votes to give it the water waste contract for the City. The company immediately notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the solicitation and cooperated fully with the agency throughout the investigation.

The investigation revealed that Calloway’s motive in soliciting the payment was to help Councilman Hansford rescue his home from foreclosure. A representative of the water and waste treatment company, cooperating with the FBI, met with the two councilmen on January 18, 2013, at a truck stop off I-75 in Jackson, Georgia, and paid them $10,000 in currency provided by the FBI while secretly recording the meeting per FBI instructions.

Following this meeting and payment, Calloway and Hansford split the money equally. A second $10,000 payment was delivered to Calloway one week later, January 25, 2013, under similar circumstances to the first. He was immediately arrested and subsequently confessed, admitting to receiving two Falcons playoff tickets from the company, which he and Hansford shared.

Calloway then cooperated with the government and participated in paying an additional $5,000 (half of the second $10,000 payment) to Hansford, who was then also arrested. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Sonja Profit.

The two men face a maximum sentence of up to ten years imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentencing of the two men will take place in approximately sixty days.

The oath of public office is a sacred thing, and those who choose to seek public office should know that they must not betray the public’s trust. Bribes have no place in government contracting, and my office will use our resources to ensure that a few instances of corruption are not allowed to erode the public’s ability to trust the representatives they elect. I want to acknowledge the good work of the FBI and also thank the company officials who reported this criminal activity, choosing to put law and order over profit.

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