Original subtitles

- She was the rising star

of Boston's Black leadership,

destined, some thought,

to become the city's first Black mayor.

- We expect our politician to provide us honest services,

and she was not doing that.

- That's what democracy encourages.

We fight it out here.

- She was in a luncheon. I handed her the money,

and she held it for a few minutes

and then just stuck her hand up

and shoved it in the bra.

[suspenseful music]

- Bribing a state senator

and the betrayal of the trust of the community--

I'm not sure people quite realize

the damage that corruption has

on a community.

- The cooperator was hesitant.

He said, "Hey, she is the top person

"in our community.

"She is the highest-ranking African American.

She's a state senator."

- I actually am from Boston

and represent the capital city.

- If that's truly the best you've got in the community,

isn't that a problem?

- You forget, political corruption

is a serious crime. It's sort of like a cancer.

- She did a lot for the community.

- She did.

- She just also did a lot for herself.

♪

- In the FBI, we make a lot of headlines.

♪

Drug busts, mob stings,

terrorist takedowns...

- Get down! Get down!

- We understand why people want

to tell stories about us.

- Mark it. - Freeze!

- FBI. - FBI!

- Action!

- But they don't know the half of it.

What really goes down?

We save that for each other,

when we're talking agent to agent.

♪

This is "FBI True."

[uneasy music]

♪

- Cindy Coppola

is a 23-year veteran of the FBI.

She worked on cases that included organized crime

and terrorism

and took part in multinational investigations

into drug trafficking and money laundering.

Coppola finished her career with the Los Angeles division,

running two offices,

supervising investigations

and providing undercover security

for special events.

♪

- So you guys were telling me

about the big case that you guys worked on

with--the subject was Dianne Wilkerson.

- Yep. - Right?

- Wilkerson was a trailblazer,

the first Black woman to be a partner

in a major law firm in Boston

and the first Black woman elected to the state senate,

in 1992.

- This was the biggest public corruption case

in the bureau at the time.

- Julia Cowley

was first assigned to the FBI's bank fraud squad,

where she investigated white-collar crimes.

Cowley later transferred to Public Corruption,

working on cases that involved various public officials,

from politicians to the police.

- So how did her name get brought to you guys?

- So we had an FBI agent

who was handling this cooperator

on another case. - Sure.

- And during that case--

- Another public corruption case, or...

- Another public corruption case.

- Yeah. - Krista Corr spent

her career as a special agent

in the Boston FBI office,

where she was initially assigned

to the Italian organized crime squad.

She later joined the public corruption squad,

where she remained for 26 years.

- And during that case, the cooperator said

to whoever he was talking to in the tape,

"Oh, yeah, I'll have to give Dianne a call."

So the handling agent...

He asked him, "Who's Dianne?" "Well, Dianne Wilkerson."

"Well, why would you call Dianne Wilkerson?"

"Oh, because to get stuff done,

you have to call her." "Well, do you pay her?"

"Yeah." "How do you know?"

- Standing. - "Well, because I've watched

somebody else pay her twice."

- His business partner had paid Dianne in the past,

and he'd been present.

We wouldn't have known about this.

This all just came up in passing.

This was normal business for him.

The cooperator didn't even think about saying

to the FBI, "Oh, by the way,

I paid a senator bribes."

- I think that that's what makes this

such an incredibly proud city

and one that's steeped in the principles

of the democracy, that that's what democracy encourages.

We fight it out here.

♪

- The cooperator was looking at opening this--

it was called Dejavu. It was a supper club

in this new development in Dianne's territory.

And I guess he'd applied for a liquor license,

been denied, and so he said,

"Well, you know, I could call Dianne,

and maybe she can help me."

So that's what we pursued.

Initially, I was doing all of this background research.

And she had a very checkered kind of history already.

She, you know, had a 1997 federal tax conviction.

The office of campaign and political finance

in Boston had multiple cases,

like they had a two-year cycle,

and every two years, they had another case on her.

- You forget, political corruption

is a serious crime. It's sort of like a cancer.

It may start out small, but then it spreads.

And you could see that in her.

♪

- This is craziness.

She has federal charges against her.

How is that allowed?

How did she stay in office?

- Well, she did a lot for the minority community.

- This city is gonna be browner and Blacker

and more yellow in the next seven years

than it's ever been.

We're gonna be 50% of the population,

and so we've got to deal with that.

- She was very much a proponent

of African Americans... - Sure.

- And they-- in the community.

- I want a president who believes

that health care access ought to depend

on whether you need it, not whether you can afford it.

- So the community took a liking to her.

- Yes, yes. - Yeah.

- And she did a lot for the community.

- She did. - If you think

that you can eliminate health disparities

without talking about race,

keep thinking.

- She's gonna help other people,

but she's gonna help herself

at the same time. - Yeah.

- The agents ask the cooperator

on the other corruption case

to set up a meeting with Wilkerson

to see if she will accept a bribe, as he claims.

- The cooperator was hesitant. He said, "Hey, she is

"the top person in our community.

"She is the highest-ranking African American.

She's a state senator."

♪

And I remember the handler basically saying to him,

"If that's truly the best you've got in the community,

isn't that a problem?" - Yeah.

- And the cooperator went, "Oh, yeah,"

and that kind of convinced him to say, "You know what?

I think you're right."

♪

- The cooperator reaches out to Wilkerson

to set up a meeting,

and because of their shared history,

Wilkerson accepts.

- So he met with her to help get this liquor license.

If she doesn't take the money,

then we don't have a case, right?

Yeah, right at that first meeting,

he handed her some money, and she took it.

She was actually very disappointed.

And then he kind of recovered, and he said, "Hey,

and there's more where that comes from,"

you know. - Sure.

- "I'll meet you again, and I'll take care of you."

- After Wilkerson accepts the bribe,

the public corruption squad must confirm

that this is truly a pattern of corrupt activity for her.

The cooperator meets with Wilkerson a second time

in a restaurant near her senate office.

- Our whole squad would participate...

- Okay. - And do some surveillance,

so we'd be in the restaurant

at another table, watching or listening.

- We watched the cooperator go in,

and she went in the lounge, met him in there,

said, "I'm doing this for you, I'm doing that,"

and he said, "Oh, great," and he handed her the money.

And she held it for a few minutes

and then just stuck her hand up

and shoved it in the bra

and moved on.

- Wilkerson accepts two more cash bribes

from the FBI cooperator

and begins making moves at the local and state level

to help obtain a liquor license

for the supper club.

- She did all sorts of things.

She not only called the mayor,

called the president of the city council,

called the joint committee chairman

in charge of licensure... - Sure.

- Normal liquor license, if it's, like, you know,

in the city like here in Boston,

they've gotta be 2, $300,000.

- Yes, liquor licenses are...

- Before he even had a business.

- 250, $300,000 at the time.

But there was this thing called a special liquor license--

it was for disadvantaged areas,

empowerment zones, things like that--

where you can get a liquor license

for $2,900

plus a dollar a seat,

so really cheap.

They didn't have any more of these.

So what she eventually did was pushed and prodded

and got senate, house,

Boston Licensing Board, city council, her,

all a big meeting, and they agreed

that the City of Boston

would sponsor what's called a home rule petition

to get 40 new special licenses

for all alcohol... - For the city.

- And 30 beer and wine

and that she would get four of them.

And Dianne, as part of what she was doing

to help us get a license, she said,

"Oh, I'm gonna call Chuck Turner

and have him hold a public hearing."

Chuck Turner was a city councilor.

He was in her district, and he was a muckraker.

- Elected to the Boston City Council

in 1999,

Turner quickly earned a reputation

for his outspoken actions and abrasive personality.

- I was rushing so fast

to get dressed to avoid more harassment

by the police.

- So she called him,

and he was gonna hold a hearing

as to why there's not more minority liquor licenses

and to really make a big splash in the press.

And then, at one point, this cooperator said on tape,

"Do you want me to go meet with Chuck, too?"

and she said, "Yes. Yes, I think you should."

So he went down and paid him $500,

which Chuck took.

- And there was no questions asked.

- Yeah, he said, "I wanna shake your hand

and thank you very much,"

and he had the money in his hand,

and he shook it.

Now, if I had money in my hand and I shook your hand,

and there was something in, you'd go, "Ooh, what's that?"

Right? - [laughs]

- There was none of that.

- No, of course. - It was all taped.

There was none of that.

So he was comfortable

taking the money.

- The FBI now has two politicians

taking bribes on camera,

but as they build their case,

they encounter an issue.

- We had a big problem with this cooperator,

and he came in one day,

and he plopped the recording equipment down,

and he said, "I'm done.

"I need you to pay my rent.

If you don't pay my rent, I'm not doing this anymore."

So what we did was,

let's introduce an undercover.

- Get him out. - Yeah, get him out,

and then we have all control in the world,

'cause the undercover's an FBI agent.

So we had one agent who--

actually, he hadn't even gone to undercover school yet.

Very nervous, but he was African American,

very likeable, so we sent him in,

and I think we said he was the cooperator's nephew

and he... - Okay.

- Wanted to get involved

in the liquor license thing.

♪

- In October, the cooperator contacts Wilkerson

to set up another meeting with himself

and the new undercover agent.

The plan is for this bribe

to come directly from the agent.

- And the cooperator said,

"Oh, I think I might be moving out,"

so the undercover said, "I want the liquor license."

- Okay. - So the fifth total payment

actually came right from the undercover.

So now he's in, so now we can kind of move...

- And she felt comfortable? - Well, she took it.

Yeah, without a problem. - Well, of course she did.

She's like, "I'm gonna take some more cash."

- With the operation back on track,

another undercover agent is added into the mix.

This second undercover is introduced to Wilkerson

as an out-of-state businessman

interested in developing another project.

- The second undercover came in,

and he paid--I think it was maybe the sixth payment,

paid her $2,000

towards keeping the liquor license thing going.

- In one of her meetings with the undercover agents,

Wilkerson pitches a new scheme.

- She had this thing called parcel eight.

So parcel eight was

this state-owned piece of property

next to a hardware store.

She kept talking about direct designation,

and what that meant was,

"I can directly designate

"this state piece of land to you,

"and it's a very valuable piece of land.

"As long as you pay, like, market value,

"I can get a piece of legislation.

We don't have to put it out to bid."

- The undercover agents express an interest

in acquiring the state-owned piece of land,

and the following month,

Wilkerson is paid a seventh bribe.

The FBI ups the ante and proposes a new meeting

with fake investors in the state of Georgia.

- And we arrange this big thing

in Atlanta.

There were gonna be, like, eight undercovers there,

and it was introducing other people in

and rolling out this scenario.

And sent her a ticket, and we're all set to go,

and she--she bagged.

Like, before, she didn't come. - Oh.

- Do you know why she canceled at the time?

You found out, maybe, after the fact,

but did you know... - She lost the primary.

- Oh. - She lost the primary,

and now she's, like, in the fight of her life.

She's gonna do a sticker campaign

and write in, and, hopefully, get reelected.

And so she's like, "Nope, I got too much on my plate,"

so she didn't come, so we never were able

to roll out that scenario,

even though everything was in place for it.

- But a call from Wilkerson provides the FBI

an opening to fully exploit her land development scheme.

- She contacted the second undercover and said,

"I'm fighting for my life.

I need you to give me $10,000 donation."

- The undercover agent agrees to donate

to Wilkerson's reelection campaign,

but tells her he needs

the state-owned land in exchange.

- He said, "Well, I wanna see

this direct designation legislation."

And she said she would do it.

So we paid her $10,000,

he paid her $10,000 in cash,

in a sandwich shop.

But she was able to show him the filing

of the legislation. So she filed it.

- I was feeling really good about the case.

I thought we'd put it together well.

And I knew our evidence was strong.

It was the kind of corruption case

that you join the bureau to work.

It's perfect. - Pay to play, bribery.

The whole--yeah. - Bribing a state senator...

- Yep. - And the betrayal of the trust

of the community.

We expect our politician to provide us honest services,

and she was not doing that.

- When did you know you were gonna be able

to do the arrest and takedown?

- The problem was, there was

an election coming up,

and there's two schools of thought

if you think about it.

Do you take it down before the election...

- Well, she's still the state senator,

but even though she lost the--

- She's still the state senator,

but she's gonna do a sticker campaign,

so that means you write in on the ballot,

but if you have enough people, you can get elected.

It does happen,

and she had a lot of support in the community.

- But the U.S. attorney decides

to move on Wilkerson before the election.

- And then it was a scramble.

It was like, you know, days of, like, you know,

planning search warrants and the arrest warrant,

and then I also did surveillance on Dianne

the days leading up to the arrest

to sort of understand what her pattern of life was,

and was she leaving? - Right, of course.

- So I think I spent about a week

just sitting out in front of her house.

- I was sitting in a car,

waiting, you know, for her to come out...

And this one woman came out,

and then she went back in,

and there was a car that pulls up.

The last thing you want

is for her to get into a car,

and now you're doing a vehicle stop.

- Yeah. - That, you know--no, no, no.

That's a bad thing. So we wanna get her

before she gets in the car.

So, all of a sudden, I went, "It's her! Let's go!

And I got out, and I just started running

down the street as fast as I could go.

And, you know, you wanna say "let's go,"

and cars pull up, but I am just--I'm going in.

- "Stop!" - Yeah, yeah.

And she was, obviously, very surprised.

Cuffs on her.

We took her back into the house.

And we started the search warrant.

And she said, "Well, what's this about?"

and I said, "Well, let me just tell you.

You know the name." And I gave her the name

of the second undercover

that had just paid her $10,000, and she said,

"Yes." And I said,

"He's an FBI agent."

And you could see the wheels just going

ta-ting, ta-ting, ta-ting, ta-ting.

And I said, "So we'd like to talk."

She goes, "I'd be happy to talk to you

after I contact my attorney."

And that was the end of that. - Yeah, that was it.

- Wilkerson was arrested

in her Dorchester home this morning

after an 18-month federal investigation

dating back to March of last year.

The FBI says the eight-term state senator

took nearly $24,000 on eight separate occasions.

We had evidence response team people searching

at the house,

and we had a team at her district office.

We had another team doing her senate office

doing a search warrant there.

- And then, once they took her into the house

and we knew everyone was safe,

I headed to city hall,

and we interviewed Chuck Turner in his office.

We ask him questions about the cooperating witness.

Did he know the cooperating witness?

Did he ever--you know, very direct questions.

You know, "Did he ever pay you money?"

- So did he tell you the truth?

- No. - No.

- I didn't take any money

from any other developer, any other person.

I don't need people's money to do my job.

- How many days after her arrest

did you arrest him?

- I think it was about two weeks.

- Yeah. - It was the weirdest thing.

We walk into the office,

and he's kicked back his chair

with his feet up on the desk,

and he's on the phone, and now you have six, eight

federal agents walking in the door--

- And he thinks it's a joke. - He stays on the phone.

He keeps talking, and we all kind of look at each other

like "What do we do?"

- Extremely disrespectful the entire time

and flippant.

So we arrest him at city hall,

and we took him and escorted him into court

for his initial appearance,

and the hallways were lined with his supporters,

many supporters,

and they were heckling us,

yelling at us. - Oh, wow.

It was... [sighs] - Contentious, of course.

- I had somebody chase me down the street,

calling me a racial ethnic cleanser.

- Yeah, that's not-- - No, we were just--

we were doing our job.

That's what public corruption's all about.

- Come to the conclusion yourself

on whether you think I am in jail

for the issues of justice

or I am in jail because of issues

of political persecution.

- I particularly took great personal offense

to Mr. Turner's representations

that he should be compared to some of this nation's

greatest civil rights heroes, such as Rosa Parks.

Mr. Turner is no Rosa Parks.

He's a convicted felon

who took a bribe

and then compounded that offense

by lying about it repeatedly.

- And did it come out, you know, later on?

Like, did their constituencies realize that they were bad,

or are they still thinking, "Okay, you know,

the FBI got this wrong"?

- The perception was that she was helping her community,

which was a disadvantaged community,

but really, ultimately,

the people that suffer the most are--

- Those people in her community.

- Who are disadvantaged.

- Exactly. - Yeah, that don't have

the money to pay.

And so they're the ones

that ultimately suffer.

So she did a lot more harm than good by her actions.

- Total disservice.

- She's only helping people that are paying her,

so other people-- they don't have

a chance in her community.

That's the bottom line.

Like, all she cares about is herself

and how it can benefit her.

- A short time ago, State Senator Dianne Wilkerson

appeared before a federal judge,

calling these charges

an all-out character assassination,

but the U.S. attorney says it's all laid out right here.

She had a history of corruption.

- The citizens of the Commonwealth

deserve honest and faithful services

from the elected officials,

uncompromised by secret payments in cash.

- Do you know what she was spending this money on?

- A lot of Home Shopping Network.

Oh, yes, like boxes everywhere that--

some of them weren't even opened.

- There were piles of clothes with tags still on them,

and she was giving a lot to family members, I think,

to help with their living expenses.

- One of the things she said on one of the tapes was,

"I always feel that I can do good

and do well at the same time."

- In total, Wilkerson accepted $23,500 in bribes

from the FBI.

- I'm not sure people quite realize

the extent that--

the damage that corruption has on a community.

- Sure. - So that's

why it's so important.

- If you don't have checks and balances

on public officials,

you can't trust the police, you can't trust the judges.

If you can't trust the public officials,

society kind of spirals downward.

- As public officials,

we take an oath,

and we're held to a higher standard,

and we have to hold all of our public officials,

including us, as FBI agents, to that higher standard.