The owner of a Bossier City business admitted (Wednesday) he helped mastermind a three-quarter-million-dollar fraud on the taxpayers through a scheme of rigged bids and overcharges for air-conditioning work on Bossier Parish schools.
Alan Lee pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Shreveport to mail fraud, becoming the first of five defendants in the case to plead guilty. He also agreed to cooperate with the government's ongoing corruption investigation of school system operations.
Lee is divesting his air-conditioning company, Air Repair, of its assets to make restitution to the school district. A real estate closing on the Air Repair property -- involving both Lee and his jailed partner and co-defendant Garrett Wilson -- was conducted Tuesday in the federal courtroom.
Lee, 53, will be sentenced in May. He faces up to 20 years in prison but is already jailed on charges he violated his parole on an unrelated state property-crime conviction.
U.S. District Judge Maurice Hicks told Lee today it is in his best interests to cooperate with government investigators because "substantial assistance" could reduce his sentence.
Complete story from KTBS
“..he violated his parole on an unrelated state property-crime conviction.”
If he already had a conviction for a property crime, why did the school board approve his company as a contractor?
Does the school board even check out the people with whom it contracts?
Hey are you a professional journalist? This article is very well written, as compared to most other blogs i saw today….
ReplyDeleteanyhow thanks for the good read!