Law and Order Prosecutor’s Kickback Conspiracy

Mike Sanders made his name as a hard-nosed prosecutor for the county that includes greater Kansas City, Mo. He seemed to be to be a rising political star when he resigned suddenly in 2015. Now it appears that his resignation was tied to an FBI investigation about a kickback scheme in which he used a disabled friend to cash checks made out against political campaign committees he controlled. His friend, a quadriplegic living on disability, says he cashed more than $60,000 worth of those checks, in return for a few hundred dollars per check, over a three year period. The checks were ostensibly for campaign work. Sanders, who was chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party for two years, said he was leaving political life for a return to private law practice when he resigned.