Operation Tennessee Waltz was a sting operation set up by federal and state law enforcement agents, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI).
The operation led to the arrest of seven Tennessee state lawmakers and two men identified as "bagmen" in the indictment on the morning of May 26, 2005, on bribery charges.
The FBI and TBI followed these arrests with an additional arrest of two county commissioners, one from Hamilton County, and the other a member of the prominent Hooks family of Memphis.
The FBI set up E-Cycle, a bogus company based in Atlanta and claiming to recycle electronics by sending the electronics to third world countries.
[1] The FBI sting operation ran from 2003 to 2007 in which eleven state and local officials were arrested for in relation to an FBI sting operation, using a fake company claiming to recycle electronics called E-Cycle Management.