Jurors see videos of senator taking FBI money

“You’ve earned yours, man,” the agent told Ford on one video clip after handing him a pile of hundred dollar bills.

Ford is on trial on federal charges of extortion, bribery and threatening a federal witness. He is one of five current or former state lawmakers indicted in the FBI investigation code-named Tennessee Waltz.

Jurors saw the tapes during the testimony of FBI agent L.C. McNiel, who was identified only by his undercover name.

McNiel was one of two agents who testified Thursday that Ford came looking for payoffs from agents posing as dishonest businessmen and was not singled out as a target of the investigation, as he contends. The trial began Monday and is expected to last a month.

The FBI made “thousands of hours” of audio and video recordings during the almost two-year, statewide investigation, McNiel said.

The investigation was built around a fake company, E-Cycle Management, that was supposedly in the business of buying and reselling used government computers.

Video clips of a meeting between McNiel and Ford in August 2004 were shown from the side and from above as the agent counted out what was described as $10,000. Ford scooped the money off a desk and stuck it in his pockets.

“I ain’t gonna try to count,” Ford said. “I hope I trust you.”

At the second videotaped meeting in September, McNiel hands over $5,000 after he and Ford go over changes E-Cycle wants in state law, supposedly to smooth the company’s way in setting up business in Tennessee.

“You’ve earned yours for this month,” McNiel said. “We said, what, five a month?”

“Yeah,” Ford replied.

Ford is charged with taking a total of $55,000 in E-Cycle payoffs.

Former FBI agent Joe Carroll, who came out of retirement to help run the investigation, testified earlier that he didn’t know who Ford was when Tennessee Waltz began.

Carroll said Tennessee Waltz agents first met Ford at a Nashville dinner arranged in April 2004 by former Sen. Kathryn Bowers of Memphis, who is also charged with corruption and is awaiting trial.

Carroll, who specialized in white-collar crime as a full-time FBI agent, posed as the CEO of E-Cycle and pretended to be looking for an advantage over business competitors, though there likely would have been few if the company had been real.

E-Cycle was supposed to buy outdated electronic equipment, ship it overseas for upgrading and then sell it in third-world countries.

“Nobody really does that,” Carroll said. “It literally made no sense, actually.”

Defense lawyer Michael Scholl, who contends the government spent thousands of dollars going after Ford, asked about pay Carroll received as an FBI “consultant.”

Carroll said he was paid at a rate close to his former FBI salary.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lorraine Craig also asked Carroll about his private employment as a corporate security consultant.

“Do they pay you with hundred dollar bills stuffed in an envelope, or do you get a check?” Craig asked.