Former Moreno Valley councilman to plead guilty in bribery case

A former Moreno Valley city councilman has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges after taking a $2.3-million cash payment from an undercover operative in what prosecutors said was the first criminal case to emerge in a months-long corruption investigation in the city.

Marcelo Co, 64, was charged Tuesday with one bribery count and another count of filing a false corporate tax return, local and federal law enforcement officials said at a news conference in Riverside. Co is set to make his initial court appearance in December, and could face a maximum penalty of 13 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.

As part of the deal, Co agreed to cooperate with the continued public corruption investigation. Officials would not elaborate on who is the focus of the probe, as well as if or when others would face criminal charges.

In January, Co accepted the payment from an undercover federal agent posing as a land broker.

He was captured on video accepting the cash payment, with a screenshot of the footage showing Co sitting at a table with stacks of money piled in front of them.

In exchange for the money, prosecutors said, Co promised to the deliver the votes on the City Council to change the zoning of a parcel of land, significantly elevating the property’s value.

The property was valued at about $710,000, but Co, with the proposed zoning alteration, would raise that value more than $5.3 million, with a publicly listed $3-million price and then the under-the-table cash payment.

U.S. Atty. André Birotte Jr. said he was stunned by how “brazen” the councilman was in his demands, and called the charges an “important milestone in this investigation.”

Timothy Delaney, an FBI special agent in charge, said Co took his duties “as seriously as if he were playing a game of Monopoly.”

Separate from the bribery charge, he also pleaded guilty to lying on tax filings. For the 2010 tax year, IRS officials said that tax returns for his business, Quik Pack Systems, listed $146,500 for total gross receipts, although he allegedly knew that figure was, in fact, at least $258,000.

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Twitter: @rar

rick.rojas@latimes.com