Tom Simon

It's like a box that you keep cigars in to keep them fresh?

Keeps them nice.

You a cigar guy?

No.

Yeah, me neither.

It's one way to get that monkey off your back.

So it was like an all-you-can-eat buffet for Mayor Rick, right?

Shadi is just showering him with gifts and appliances and stuff in exchange for these, like, 95 plots of land.

FBI catches wind of it, right?

These are all kind of public records.

Probably some citizen do-gooder was looking at this and saying, like, why are we all giving it to Shadi?

FBI does a search warrant of Mayor Rick's house.

They find $200,000 cash stashed away inside his house.

This is a mayor of a small town.

The mayor initially denies the charges, but then Shady pleads guilty and agrees to cooperate.

Well, you know, in for a dime, in for a dollar.

He thought they would fight this thing together.

And so as soon as Shady decided to cooperate, and remember, first one in the door off and gets the deal, Mayor Rick waves the white flag and pleads guilty himself.

So the court found that Mayor Rick received bribes from Awad Shady totaling $85,000.

That's all the government could prove, right?