A Maryland doctor and developer was sentenced to a year-and-a-half in prison for his part in an extortion conspiracy involving disgraced former Prince George’s County executive Jack Johnson.
Dr. Mirza Hussain Baig, 68, of Burtonsville, was one of 15 people convicted in the years-long federal investigation into public corruption in Prince George’s County.
Baig is a physician and the president of Laurel Lakes Primary Care. He also owned Baig Ventures, a commercial and residential developer since 1992.
Baig admitted to providing money, campaign contributions, and other things of value in exchange for millions of dollars in grants, acquiring county property and land, finding people jobs, obtaining permits and other favors.
In 2010, for instance, Baig gave Jack Johnson $12,000 in cash and on another occasion a $3,000 check for a political candidate. In exchange, Johnson helped in county matters and obtained a job for one of Baig’s associates as a physician at Prince George’s Hospital Center.
Baig gave Johnson a cashier’s check for $50,000, but Johnson returned it because he feared getting caught trying to cash it, prosecutors said.
FBI agents listened in on intercepted phone coversations of Johnson telling Baig that he had not received $150,000 that he expected for conducting official favors for Baig, prosecutors said.
Jack Johnson, 63, was sentenced to more than 7 years in prison for his leadership role in the extortion conspiracy and tampering with a witness and evidence.
