BIRMINGHAM, Ala. AP – The mayor of Alabama’s largest city, Larry Langford, was arrested Monday on charges of steering millions of dollars of bond work to a friend in exchange for more than $230,000 in bribes that paid his debts for flashy clothes, jewelry and Rolex watches.

The bond deals – which funded years of work on a substandard county sewer system – went sour and have helped push surrounding Jefferson County to the brink of filing the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.