Bribery plea may send former Columbus lobbyist John Raphael back to prison
John Raphael, the former influential Columbus City Hall lobbyist and one-time political ally to several high-ranking local Democrats, has again agreed to plead guilty to federal corruption charges for billing clients "success fees" that were really intended as bribes in return for securing public contracts, court documents show. And for the second time since 2016, Raphael is facing prison — this time for up to 20 years — for his role in a bribery and kickback scheme he devised and carried out between 2013 and 2015 as a member of the Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority, the pu...
Source: dispatch.com