A Health Care Administration Provider in El Paso lost a $150-million contract with two school districts in the area after an FBI public corruption investigation found that the President of the Provider saved the job of the son of a District Trustee who voted for the contract.
There aren’t a lot of details in this article, and the case is ongoing with other indictments, but the trustees son apparently worked at the Health Care Provider and was absent a lot and doing a terrible job. But they kept him on because his father, the Trustee, voted for the $150-million five year contract.
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From
http://www.elpasotimes.com/publiccorruption/ci_6408323
By Tammy Fonce-Olivas /
El Paso Times El Paso Times
Article Launched:07/19/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT
Details in a court document filed Tuesday provide a deeper
insight into an FBI public corruption investigation implicating an Ysleta
Independent School District trustee in an apparent plot to exchange his vote on
a multimillion-dollar health contract for a job for his son.
The document filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra P. Kanof shows Access
HealthSource President Frank Apodaca and officials at the National Center for Employment of the Disabled, which is now known as ReadyOne Industries,
communicating about not firing a son of Ysleta trustee Milton
"Mickey" Duntley who was allegedly employed as political favor.
Apodaca allegedly sent an e-mail on Sept. 8, 2004, to Ernie Lopez, the
former chief operating officer at NCED, now called Ready One, and other
employees, in which he sought employment for one of Duntley's son.
Lopez allegedly forwarded the e-mail to another employee while at the same
time copying the e-mail to Apodaca.
"At 6:48 p.m. on September 9, 2004, Frank Apodaca sent an e-mail to
Lopez stating: "Thanks, Ernie. Political favor," according to the
document.
Apodaca, who has been identified as a target of the FBI investigation and
whose home and office have been search by agents, could not be reached for comment.
Lopez's lawyer, Mary Stillinger, who was out of town Wednesday, said she was
aware of the prosecutor's filing but withheld comment until she could review
the document thoroughly.
According to the document, the e-mail in question was provided to prosecutors
and investigators on July 12 by representatives of ReadyOne.
The document further stated that Duntley's son was already working for Sahara, a subsidiary of NCED, but wasn't performing well.
He was allegedly repeatedly late and was on the verge of being fired. The
e-mails were related to finding Duntley's son a new job, court documents show.
About a month after the e-mails were exchanged, Apodaca and Marc Schwartz,
who was the spokesman for NCED and Access at the time is still the spokesman
for ReadyOne, discussed the employment of Duntley's son in a telephone call,
the document states. The call was intercepted by investigators with court
authorization, the filing states.
According to an Oct. 4, 2005, telephone call, Schwartz told Apodaca that
Duntley's son had been late to work at Sahara 96 times. During that
conversation, Schwartz allegedly told Apodaca he would talk to Duntley about
his son after the Ysleta school board vote on Nov. 9.
"Right, until after this November ninth vote, and I'll be happy to talk
to Mickey about, tell (sic) talking to his son. And I just don't want, don't
want him canned before the vote. Think about that and we'll talk about it when
you get back," the document states. The document says Apodaca responded,
"Okay. Sounds good, Marc."
The day before that telephone conversation, a Sahara employee allegedly called Schwartz to tell him that Duntley's son was on his
"final notice for poor attendance" and that he was being considered
for termination.
Gary Weiser, Schwartz's lawyer, declined to comment.
Ysleta district documents do not show a school board meeting on Nov. 9,
2005.
But the board did meet on Nov. 8, 2005, and Duntley was among trustees who
voted to award Access HealthSource a five-year, $150 million contract to be the
district's health insurance administrator at that time.
Last month, the Ysleta school board voted to seek bids to possibly replace
Access HealthSource. Duntley was one of two trustees who opposed the vote.
The documents filed this week are part of filings in which the U.S. attorney's office asks U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo to stop Stillinger from representing Duntley, Lopez and Charles Roark, the executive director of Hospice El Paso and an El Paso Independent School District Trustee.
The three men are targets of the FBI investigation, but none of them has been indicted, charged or arrested.
Prosecutors claim Stillinger should be prevented from representing Roark,
Lopez and Duntley because a possible conflict of interest could arise. The conflict
could be that one client may have information that would a affect the other.
The U.S. attorney's office has tried to connect Roark and Lopez to "a free-rent
scheme provided by NCED for Hospice."
Stillinger has said she shouldn't be banned from representing Roark, Duntley
and Lopez because there is no possible conflict of interest.
Montalvo has not ruled on the issue.
The FBI is also investigating the Access HealthSource contract with the
El Paso Independent School District,
which dropped the company last month.
The documents questioning the legal representation for Roark, Duntley and
Lopez are being filed with the same case number as court records linked to John
Travis Ketner, the former county chief of staff for County Judge Anthony Cobos.
June 8, Ketner pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud
and two counts of wire fraud.
An 18-page document, which is known as an "information" and which
outlines Ketner's guilty pleas, implicates 17 individuals and two companies.
They include people who are believed to be County Judge Anthony Cobos,
Commissioners Miguel Terán and Luis Sariñana, District Clerk Gilbert Sanchez,
and former County Commissioner Betti Flores.
On July 6, Flores pleaded guilty to four
counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and the deprivation of honest
services and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and the deprivation
of honest services. The others have denied any wrongdoing.
In a court document Stillinger filed last month, she claims prosecutors
should not have lumped the documents regarding her representation of Roark,
Duntley and Lopez together with Ketner's case because her clients have nothing
to do with Ketner and are not among "any of the numerous unindicted
co-conspirators mentioned in the information."
In a document filed Wednesday, Kanof asked the court for more time to
respond to Stillinger's claim that she should not be disqualified as the lawyer
for the three men because the request was improperly filed with the same case
number as the one used in the criminal case against Ketner.
Stillinger said Wednesday that she was opposed to the judge granting
prosecutors more time to file their response.
Tammy Fonce-OIivas may be reached at [email protected]; 546-6362.
FBI public corruption investigation
================================================= from http://www.kvia.com/global/Story.asp?s=6664667 06.15.07 AP: In-Depth look at EP County corruption claims Updated: Dec 21, 2007 05:30 PM EL PASO, Texas (AP) - A former top aide to the El Paso county judge has pleaded guilty to corruption charges and claims he was hired specifically to solicit bribes from vendors looking to win or keep county contracts. John Travis Ketner, the former chief of staff to El Paso County Judge Anthony Cobos, filed an 18-page document in federal court describing how a campaign donation, a cash payment, or an all-expenses-paid trip to New York could secure a lucrative county contract. The FBI has already raided the offices of Cobos, two county commissioners, and other local officials. The probe is part of a larger investigation made public last year that has included a local charity and school districts. Local authorities not involved in the scandal said they fear if Ketner's claims leads to numerous indictments, county business could grind to a halt. Ketner pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud charges last Friday in federal court in San Antonio. It was unclear when he would be sentenced or if he was in custody because U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo has sealed all court records in the case, except for Ketner's description. Ketner's guilty plea is part of an ongoing public corruption investigation that became public last year after federal agents raided several locations in connection with the former head of a local charity. The probe has since expanded to include local school districts, the county officials and several others. The offices of Cobos, county commissioners Luis Sarinana and Miguel Teran were raided last month. Agents also raided the office and home of Arturo "Tury" Duran, a member of a local hospital board of managers, and Teran's house. Ketner alleges that Cobos, a first-term county judge who is described by title but not name in the court records, hired him in January at the behest of another local lawyer, who also was not named in the court record, specifically to solicit bribes from vendors looking to win or keep county contracts. Meetings to ask for or receive campaign contributions of $1,000 to $2,000 and for undisclosed cash payments or trips, were held in restaurants, county offices and at least once inside a small office bathroom, Ketner claims. He also claims the scheme included rigging the computer system that assigns judges to cases in county court as far back as 2004. Ketner's office and home telephone numbers were disconnected this week and he could not be reached for comment. It is unclear if he has hired an attorney. Cobos has previously denied any wrongdoing, suggesting that the probe is politically motivated. His lawyer, David Botsford in Austin, did not return phone calls seeking comment. Teran, Sarinana and Duran have not been named in court records, though it lists three current unnamed officeholders who hold the same posts. Teran and Sarinana have denied any wrongdoing. One of those unnamed coconspirators, a hospital board member, is described as the "bag man" in the bribe scheme. Duran's attorney, Luis Aguilar, said his client has done nothing wrong and that "any song and dance the U.S. Attorney's office wants, (Ketner) is going to give them." The scope of the ongoing investigation is unclear, but some fear the case could upend county government in the state's sixth largest county. County Commissioner Veronica Escobar, one of two commissioners who has not been implicated, said she worries that the investigation will derail the county's budget process, due to begin later this summer in advance of the start of the fiscal year in October. "I hope there is some resolution soon, I feel like we're in limbo," Escobar said after a public budget meeting in which she was the only commissioner present. If her colleagues are indicted in the federal probe, they won't necessarily have to leave office - Cobos and Teran have already rejected public calls for their resignations. State law allows for elected officials to stay in office so long as they have not been convicted of a crime. But El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez said any county elected official can be removed by petition for incompetence or official misconduct. A district judge can also suspend an elected official pending the outcome a removal trial. If that happens with the majority of the El Paso County commissioners, Rodriguez said the county could end up in court-ordered receivership since there would no longer be enough commissioners to run meetings and make decisions. The same thing could happen if a majority of the commission resigned before replacements could be named, Rodriguez said. In the mid-1990s, five elected Houston officials were indicted and tried on federal charges that they took bribes. Former Houston City Councilman Ben Reyes was convicted in 1998 and sentenced to nine years in prison. Former Port Commissioner Betti Maldonado also was convicted and sentenced to four years and three months in federal prison. Both have been released. Gregory Rocha, a political science assistant professor at the University of Texas-El Paso, said the culture of corruption has long existed along the border in Texas. "There's always been this perception that along the border area...things are run, shall we say rather loosely," Rocha said. "This kind of thing has been around a long time. A lot of people called it the patron system, where local bosses, local elected officials, controlled the voting apparatus." (Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) AP-NY-06-15-07 1319EDT =========================================== 2.21.07 Two plead guilty to charges of fraud and bribery schemes Posted: Dec 21, 2007 05:58 PM By Miguel Martinez EL PASO -- Two former investment bankers with Bear Stearns pleaded guilty in El Paso to fraud charges in connection with the FBI's ongoing public corruption investigation, United States Attorney Johnny Sutton said. Ruiz pleaded guilty to four counts of conspiracy to commit mail/wire fraud and depriving citizens of honest services of elected officials with El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Community College District, the City of El Paso and members of the County Commissioner's Court. Bear Stearns is an investment group with offices in Dallas. Investigators said the two attempted to bribe the elected officials in order influence votes in favor of certain vendors who sought to do business with the various groups. Pak pleaded guilty to engaging in a scheme to bribe an elected El Paso county commissioner in order to secure votes in favor of certain vendors.
