It's been about a year since contractor Elvin "E.R." Mitchell Jr. admitted to paying more than $1 million in bribes to a still unnamed person under the belief some of the money would go to people with authority over city contracts. A second contractor, Charles P. Richards Jr., also admitted paying bribes.
Throughout 2017, the cash-for-contracts scandal has brought unwanted attention to Atlanta City Hall, the mayor’s office and the Department of Procurement as a complicated network of pay-to-play allegations, witness intimidation and threats, secret recordings and federal raids came to light.
But even as Atlanta enters 2018 with a new mayor who says she’ll reform the city’s purchasing process, the bribery scandal hangs over city government as the federal investigation continues. View the video above to see five key events that have happened during the corruption probe to this point.
-- The AJC’s J. Scott Trubey contributed to this article.
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