Ex-Alabama County Official Sentenced to 10 Years in Sewer-System Bribery
A former Jefferson County, Alabama, commissioner was sentenced to 10 years in prison for accepting bribes from an engineering firm that worked on a $3 billion sewer system that nearly bankrupted the county.
Gary White, who oversaw the county’s environmental services department, was sentenced today in Tuscaloosa by U.S. District Judge Scott Coogler on a 2008 conviction for taking cash in exchange for awarding $11 million in no-bid sewer contracts, according to a press release from U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance.
“Substantial prison time is absolutely deserved in a case where a public official solicits and receives regular cash payments in return for doling out millions of dollars in government contracts,” Vance said.
White, a Republican, is the second Jefferson County official in less than a year to be sentenced for corruption related to the sewer system. Larry Langford, the former Democratic president of the county commission, is serving a 15- year term for taking bribes in connection with a refinancing of sewer debt.
Langford was convicted last year of taking more than $200,000 in money, designer clothes and jewelry from an investment banker who made more than $7 million in bond and derivatives fees.
Refinancing Collapse
Jefferson County’s sewer refinancing arranged in 2002 and 2003 by JPMorgan Chase & Co. collapsed in 2008 when companies guaranteeing the floating-rate debt lost their top credit ratings because of losses on unrelated mortgage-backed securities. Interest rates on the sewer bonds rose to as much as 10 percent and derivatives tied to the debt worsened the crisis by further increasing borrowing costs.
A federal jury in January 2008 convicted White of taking cash in white envelopes from Sohan Singh, the president of U.S. Infrastructure Inc., according to the U.S. attorney. The company had a total of $50 million in contracts with the county.
White’s sentencing was delayed after he sought a new trial. An appeals court in December reinstated the convictions, according to Vance’s statement.
At least 21 contractors and former county officials have been indicted or convicted of federal crimes in the building and financing of the sewer system.
To contact the reporter on this story: Martin Z. Braun in New York at mbraun6@bloomberg.net
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