An Atlanta businessman allegedly paid more than $40,000 in bribes to Atlanta attorney Adam Smith for three years while Smith was the chief procurement officer at City Hall, according to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday.

When federal agents engaged in an ongoing corruption investigation zeroed in on Smith in February 2017, Lohrasb “Jeff” Jafari urged Smith to either deny he took any money from him or to label them as loans that Smith later repaid, the indictment alleges.