The mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, was arrested by the FBI Monday, on federal charges including conspiracy, bribery, fraud, money laundering and filing false income tax returns. Mayor Larry Langford pleaded not guilty Monday to a 101-count federal indictment in an alleged pay-for-play scheme involving a lobbyist and Montgomery investment banker. Langford is accused of accepting clothes, jewelry and loans while he was a Jefferson County commissioner in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of consulting fees.

Langford was the head of the Jefferson County commission at the time it engaged in variable rate, auction and bond swaps to raise money to improve its sewer system. Those bonds resulted in what is now a $3.2 billion sewer debt.
Langford was charged along with investment banker William Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre. It appears he accepted $235,000 in cash and checks to influence and reward him in connection with bond deals and swap.

"Langford steered lucrative business to William Blount and his company and he, in turn, earned in excess of $7.1 million and, with the help of lobbyist Albert LaPierre, they ensured that Larry Langford's crushing personal debts were paid off through payoffs of loans, store charge accounts, purchases of clothing and jewelry and other items of value that exceeded $230,000 over a period from 2002 to 2006," attorney Alice Martin said. She also described the case against the three men as a "classic pay to play scheme."

U.S. Magistrate Judge John Otts released Langford on $50,000 unsecured bond and ordered that he not travel outside the Northern District of Alabama without court approval.