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Abscam
Launched in March 1978, the FBI sting operation known as Abscam led to the conviction of a U.S. senator, six congressmen, three Philadelphia City Council members, and the mayor of Camden, New Jersey, for taking bribes from undercover agents pretending to the Arab sheiks. The FBI secretly filmed the transactions in hotel rooms in New York and Philadelphia, a yacht in Miami, and a mansion in Washington, D.C. The operation stunned Congress, led to widespread criticism of the Justice Department for engaging in “entrapment” tactics, and later inspired the 2014 film American Hustle.
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