Former Mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin was sentenced to federal court on criminal charges including bribery, money laundering, and fraud.
Nagin was convicted on 20 counts, according to NOLA. On Feb. 12, the court found that Nagin accepted large amounts of money in bribes. Prosecutors found more than $500,000 in funds that Nagin will have to forfeit.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Coman carefully looked at Nagin's crimes, and compared them to the crimes of other mayors and public officials. According to the Associated Press, Coman wrote, "Nagin's widespread and corrosive breach of the public trust - lasting through much of his tenure in office - equals even the worst of these state and local corruption cases."
Nagin became the mayor of New Orleans in 2002, and was a cable television executive before that. He was the mayor during the crisis of Hurricane Katrina, when New Orleans flooded and tens of thousands of citizens were forced to remain at the Superdome.
Defense attorney Robert Jenkins will ask for leniency for Nagin, 58, a Democrat who served in New Orleans until 2010.