The Investor's Hotel Plan

Undercover FBI agents posed as staff of a company fronting for a wealthy Arab investor who supposedly wanted to build a $30–40 million hotel in a large city. A career swindler working with the government spread word that the investor wanted to meet public officials. The president and the majority leader of the city council, each briefed beforehand, came to meetings at a hotel, gave assurances they would help with the project, and accepted cash from agents posing as the investor's representatives: $30,000 and $10,000. A jury convicted both of conspiring to obtain money under color of official right, but the trial judge set the verdicts aside. The councilmen argued they had been entrapped: the government invented the whole scheme, offered generous payments, and suggested the project depended on their taking the money.