FBI returns to Reading City Hall in corruption probe

READING, Pa. (WPVI) -- Reading City Hall was paid another visit by the FBI on Tuesday, months after the office building was targeted during a corruption probe.

The visit appears to be a much larger investigation into pay-to-play politics involving previous city lawmakers in Reading.

Reading Mayor Wally Scott says the FBI returned it to City Hall today at his invitation.

This most recent search comes more than a year after the initial FBI raid on Reading City Hall and the home of then-mayor Vaughn Spencer.

Former city council president Francis Acosta has since admitted that he accepted an $1,800 bride in exchange for Acosta's support in repealing the city's ethics laws.

Acosta is currently serving a two-year term in federal prison.

Tuesday's FBI search included interviews with other people from past administrations, and an unspecified number of service contracts over the past few decades.

Mayor Scott offered little in the way of specifics, but he did talk about his concern over deals made between the parking authority and a towing company.

The mayor said, "Why would you sign 25-year contracts and another 25-year on top of it? Why would you have a towing contract with a company that is in another county when we have towing companies that are here could take it? ...There was a saying years ago that went like this: If you see smoke, there's got to be fire."

Several other people associated with city hall have already pleaded guilty to charges linked to this investigation. But we should mention that while former-mayor Vaughn Spencer has been implicated, he has not yet been charged with anything at this time.