Peach Tree Times

Former Atlanta city official and pastor Mitzi Bickers has been sentenced to 14 years in prison by a federal judge after being found guilty on nine counts of money laundering, wire fraud and conspiracy as part of a long-running probe into City Hall corruption.

According to a recent report by FOX 5 Atlanta, Bickers faced a jury in March, where she was found guilty of nine of 12 counts, including money laundering, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit bribery.

"When you follow the money trail, in this case, it cuts through the lies and the manipulation," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Kitchens said in court, FOX 5 reports. "It all leads to one clear path, that the defendant Mitzi Bickers is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."

Throughout the trial, prosecutors argued Bickers used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle that included purchasing a lakefront home, a luxury SUV, jet skis and taking expensive trips. 

Bickers, who helped former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed win an election, later joined the administration as director of human services, FOX 5 reports. Among the charges lodged against her claimed that she steered roughly $17 million in city work to the two men and their companies in exchange for about $2 million in bribes.

Kitchen added that Bickers had lied in her financial disclosure forms for the city, as well as on her federal tax returns to conceal the bribes, the report states. She is also accused of instructing others to lie to the Federal Bureau of Investigations in 2015 to hide her role in the scheme to get contract work from city officials in Jackson, Mississippi.

Reed was not charged in connection with the scandal, and in 2021, released a statement indicating federal prosecutors had told him that he was not under investigation, FOX 5 reports.