Former Md. county exec pleads guilty to corruption - Yahoo! News

A former Maryland county executive pleaded guilty Tuesday to shaking down developers for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and other favors in exchange for doing business with the county, part of a wide-ranging public corruption probe that prosecutors said is far from over.

The plea came six months after former Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson accepted $15,000 in cash from a developer and was immediately confronted by FBI agents. Shortly thereafter, agents tapping Johnson's cell phone listened as he called his wife while agents were at the door of their home and asked her to flush a $100,000 check down the toilet and to stuff nearly $80,000 in cash in her underwear. He and his wife were then arrested and the cash was recovered.