Most public corruption cases in Georgia are prosecuted in federal court. The U.S. attorney for North Georgia, including metro Atlanta, has an excellent Web site with archived news releases on prominent cases.

Federal court files may be searched online for a nominal fee through PACER. (The first $10 a year of searches are free.)

With the right keywords, online search engines will also turn up news releases or court rulings on a particular case at no cost.

You can also search the Georgia and federal prison systems to find inmates and their crimes.

A. STEPHAN BOTES

It was a long fall for South African businessman Andries Stephan Botes. The 52-year-old went from mover and shaker in computer consulting to federal prisoner 56403-019 – and to forever being linked with an election scandal that landed Georgia’s first woman elected to statewide office in jail.

Today, Botes spends his days in Dalby, a privately managed, low- security prison in northeast Texas. He is the former chairman and CEO of Computer Consulting Services Corp., as well as other affiliated companies, including Uniting Networks Inc. and Global Executive Management LLC. Botes was accused of receiving more than $600,000 in Georgia Department of Education contracts and funneling much of the money to then-School Superintendent Linda Schrenko’s failed gubernatorial campaign.

Botes maintained his innocence, even posting the results of a private lie detector test on computer whiz blogging sites. Still, he was found guilty on 15 counts including embezzling federal funds, conspiracy to commit a scheme to defraud the state and wire fraud. His conviction appeal was denied in August 2008.

In December, the Department of Labor filed suit against the defunct software company over its failure to pay out contributions and loan payments withheld from employee wages for the company's 401(k) plan.

His scheduled release date is June 2013, a few months before Schrenko’s scheduled release.

MERLE TEMPLE

Maybe fate landed Merle Temple in Memphis. After all, the former Georgia deputy school superintendent professes a love of Elvis. … and a few other things.

But he won’t be seeing Graceland anytime soon, even if it is just 18 miles away. Temple is serving an 8-year federal prison sentence for a scheme to award $600,000 in bogus computer contracts and funnel much of the money to the failed gubernatorial bid of former Superintendent, and former lover, Linda Schrenko.

After Temple pleaded guilty, prosecutors said he tried to obstruct justice by offering to tailor his testimony to help Schrenko and giving her lawyer a list of questions that could hurt the prosecution’s case.

His time in the pokey hasn’t been uneventful. About a year ago, he posted an online pen pal request at INMATE Classified. He writes of his love of rainbows, Elvis, and “especially women, God’s greatest creation.” He mentions his wife of 37 years died while he was in prison.

The only reference to the criminal charges? “I was caught up in a campaign for Governor, and tried too hard to get someone elected.”  
The 61-year-old’s release is scheduled for October 2013, a few months after Schrenko’s.

LINDA SCHRENKO

It’s a small world after all – at least for prisoner 56443-019. Former State School Superintendent Linda C. Schrenko has spent the last few years less than an hour from Disney World, at a federal pokey in central Florida.

Georgia's first woman elected to statewide office, once a darling of the GOP and a hopeful for governor, spends her days in college dorm-style cells at the minimum-security Coleman Federal Correctional Complex.

    She fell from grace after a scheme concocted with deputy school superintendent Merle Temple, who was also her lover. Both were married to others at the time. They handed out more than $600,000 in bogus Georgia Department of Education contracts to a computer consultant; much of the money was diverted back to Schrenko’s gubernatorial campaign. Dozens of checks from straw donors, many of them family and friends, ended up in her election account. She used about $9,300 of it for a facelift.

     Less than a few weeks into her 2006 trial, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. A few months later, she was sentenced to eight years in federal prison. The 59-year-old’s release is set for August 2013.

JOSH KENYON

Josh Kenyon has been scared straight. With the federal pen now five years behind him, the former chief of staff for Fulton County Commission Chairman Mitch Skandalakis is helping the man who put him in jail teach corporate ethics.

Kenyon lost his job, his wife, his family and his law license after serving six months for taking $14,000 in bribes from a contractor. He was released in 2004.

Today, he spends his time at a legal recruiting firm and doing seminars with former FBI Agent Oliver Halle, who helped lead the Fulton bribery investigation. Halle’s training program is called “Taking the Harder Right,” which is also the name of the book he wrote in which Kenyon is one of three featured felons who wrote a first-person account of their fall from grace.

A few years after Kenyon’s release, he wrote about his experience in a letter to the newspaper.

RON SAILOR

Where to begin? Sailor is serving a 63-month sentence in federal prison in West Virginia. He was charged in December 2007 after offering to launder $375,000 in “drug money” that actually came from an undercover federal agent.

While he was awaiting sentencing, Sailor defrauded the Greater New Light Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, where he served as minister, of $250,000. He secretly took out a mortgage on the church and used the money to pay personal expenses.

Sailor had promised federal prosecutors he would cooperate in an ongoing public corruption investigation, whose targets have not been disclosed. But prosecutors said Sailor had blown his credibility and his information, if he had any, would be of little value.
Sailor’s release is scheduled for May 2013.

PAT SWINDALL

Swindall, a former two-term congressman from DeKalb, was convicted in 1989 of lying to a grand jury in a federal sting investigation. An undercover IRS agent testified that Swindall discussed the possible use of $850,000 in illegal drug proceeds to finance cost overruns in the construction of his Stone Mountain house. He served a year in prison for six counts of perjury. Today, Swindall manages commercial real estate in downtown Atlanta. Records show his corporations owe more than $185,000 in back property taxes on buildings at 82 Peachtree St. and 97 Peachtree.

RALPH DAVID ABERNATHY III

1999: Abernathy went to prison for 15 months for stealing $13,000 through false expense vouchers and offering an aide $2,700 to lie about it to the GBI. After his release, he went back for 11 more months for bilking two women of $35,000 by promising to win their loved ones' release from prison.

1998: Alerted by a drug-sniffing dog, customs officials caught Abernathy with a quarter-ounce of marijuana in his underpants as he returned from Jamaica. He was fined $500.

1994: A state employee said Abernathy followed her into the women's restroom, entered the stall she was using and refused to leave. The Senate Ethics Committee refused to investigate.

Today: Abernathy, now an ordained minister, is active in efforts to build a museum honoring his late father, once the head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He has struggled with tax problems, with liens for $74,482 for state and federal income taxes on the books.

TIM MADISON

Madison built a reputation as a tough guy over 24 years as Piedmont Circuit district attorney (Jackson, Banks and Barrow counties). He got caught billing Banks County for salary expenses that the state was already paying and helping his wife double-dip on two jobs in his office. He kept about $40,000 for himself, buying a $7,000 motorcycle, $2,400 in sailing lessons and other stuff.
   The weekly Jackson Herald newspaper uncovered Madison’s activities in March 2007, leading to a GBI investigation. Madison pleaded guilty a year later to theft by taking, violation of his oath, conspiracy and four counts of making false statements. He is serving a six-year prison term.