BREAKING...There must be something in the water that gets piped into the houses of certain Republican politicians in Arizona. In this case, something to help make doing the laundry a more rewarding task, perhaps:
WASHINGTON -- Republican Rep. Rick Renzi has been indicted for extortion, wire fraud, money laundering and other charges related to a land deal in Arizona.
A 26-page federal indictment unsealed in Arizona accuses Mr. Renzi and two former business partners of conspiring to promote the sale of land that buyers could swap for property owned by the federal government. The sale netted one of Mr. Renzi's former partners $4.5 million.
The three-term Republican announced in August that he would not seek re-election because of the federal inquiry.
Last April, The Wall Street Journal reported that a real-estate developer and former business partner gave Mr. Renzi $200,000 as part of a complicated federal land swap that benefited the developer and would have required Mr. Renzi's legislative help. Mr. Renzi's attorney at the time said the payment was an unrelated real-estate debt. Investigators subsequently began looking into several other allegations, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Justice Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service are planning to publicly discuss the case shortly.
Also at Cogitamus.
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