Charles P. Richards Jr., Bribery, GA 2024

Charles P. Richards Jr., 64, of Tucker, Georgia, has been arraigned on federal bribery charges for funneling over $185,000 in exchange for lucrative City of Atlanta construction contracts. The owner and principal of C.P. Richards Construction Co., Inc., and C.P. Richards & Associates, Inc., Richards is the second contractor charged in a sprawling pay-to-play scheme that poisoned the city’s procurement system for more than half a decade.

From approximately 2010 to August 2015, Richards conspired with co-defendant Elvin R. Mitchell, Jr., to bribe an intermediary who claimed to have influence over city officials responsible for awarding contracts. Richards believed the payments would grease the wheels, securing no-bid and competitively bid work while shutting out honest contractors. Instead, he secured a one-way ticket to the defendant’s chair, facing federal prison and the collapse of his business empire.

“Contractors who willingly participate in a pay-to-play contracting system subvert the process for those who try to compete fairly and ultimately undermine the public’s trust in government,” said U.S. Attorney John A. Horn. The Justice Department is treating the case as a direct assault on democratic accountability—where tax-funded projects were treated as commodities, sold to the highest silent bidder.

David J. LeValley, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office, warned that bribery isn’t just a crime for the takers—those who pay the bribes face equal consequences. “The FBI continues to work diligently with its various law enforcement partners and federal prosecutors in identifying, investigating, and presenting for prosecution all individuals engaged in these types of criminal public corruption schemes,” LeValley said, underscoring the bureau’s all-fronts war on graft.

IRS Criminal Investigation’s Veronica Hyman-Pillot added that Richards didn’t just game the system—he trampled it. “Charles Richards Jr. undermined the process of fair and open competition when he conspired with others to pay bribes in exchange for securing lucrative contracts with the City of Atlanta,” she said. The IRS-CI sees such crimes as both a corruption issue and a fiscal one—wasted taxpayer dollars lining private pockets.

Richards was charged by information and is scheduled to plead guilty on February 16, 2017, before U.S. District Court Judge Steve C. Jones. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and IRS Criminal Investigation, and is being prosecuted by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey W. Davis, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Steinberg. More information is available through the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016.