On March 26, 2014, Cannon was arrested on charges of accepting over $48,000 in bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as businessmen wanting to work with the city.

Originally representing District 3 on the city's west side, he was elected to an at-large seat in 2001.

[9][10] On June 3, 2014, Cannon pleaded guilty to one count of honest services wire fraud, which carried a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Today, I have acknowledged being guilty of accepting monies for constituent services, something that should never have been done while serving in elected office.

I can only hope that the life that I live from now on will reflect both my remorse and my desire to still make a positive impact upon our city.

He began serving his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution, Morgantown, a minimum-security facility in West Virginia, and was originally scheduled for release on January 25, 2018.

He officially became an ex-convict on January 25, 2017, as he began two years of supervised release monitored by the Residential Re-Entry Management Office in Raleigh, NC.

[16] On March 4, 2022, Cannon announced an attempt to return to politics by filing to run for an at-large Charlotte City Council seat.