Posted on: Friday, January 18, 2002

Mirikitani begins serving sentence in Nevada prison

By James Gonser
Advertiser Staff Writer

Mirikitani: Convicted on corruption charges

Former City Councilman Andy Mirikitani reported to a federal prison in Nevada yesterday to start serving a 4 1/4-year prison term for his public corruption conviction, according to his attorney Dawn Smith.

Mirikitani met his 2 p.m. deadline and reported to the Nellis federal prison in North Las Vegas, a minimum-security facility for men, Smith said.

Mirikitani was convicted in July of theft, bribery, extortion, wire fraud and witness tampering for offering bonuses to two of his then-council aides if they kicked back a share of the money to him.

Mirikitani's wife and co-defendant, Sharron Mirikitani (formerly Bynum), was convicted of assisting him in the theft and extortion case. She was sentenced to serve one year and nine months in federal prison.

She also turned herself in yesterday at the Carswell women's prison in Fort Worth, Texas.

Both were required to pay their own travel expenses.