Former Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon was sentenced on Tuesday to 44 months in U.S. prison after admitting to using his public positions in North Carolina's largest city for personal financial gain, including taking at least $50,000 in bribes.
Cannon, a Democrat who served on the Charlotte City Council before being elected mayor last November, pleaded guilty in June to a public corruption charge. A nearly four-year investigation resulted in his arrest and resignation in March.
"I'm sorry," Cannon said during his sentencing hearing on Tuesday. "I let a lot of people down."
U.S. prosecutors said Cannon accepted bribes from a strip club owner and two undercover federal agents posing as investors in exchange for helping them navigate city government and zoning issues through his elected positions.
Prosecutors said he took cash, paid travel to Las Vegas and use of a luxury apartment from the undercover agents.
Cannon had faced a maximum prison term of 20 years and a $250,000 fine on a charge of honest services wire fraud. The charge holds that he deprived the city of his "honest and faithful services" by carrying out a bribery scheme dating back to December 2009.
He was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine as part of his sentence.
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