Editor's Note: This comment from pec4u watchdog member Paul Langston, watchdogs@pec4u.org: To the four NON-ELECTED, appointed directors on the PEC Board: I was here on Monday, June 15 and I watched you make hash out of business order and ethics. You nixed the Re-Elected Director, Mr Patrick Cox. We saw the emergence of James Williams as a true member of THE FUELBERG UTILITY COOP. James will be the new President of the Board, no election, appointed by you. You are not going to seat the newly elected Directors, till later. Much Later.
Good Work, boys and girls, Bennie would be proud of you. Now that we mention Bennie, we note that he has been indicted by the Grand Jury. We note that if Bennie comes to trial, he has an almost perfect defense. You directors were in charge you called the shots and he was just an employee!
It is like this: A Special Director's meeting was held, in secret, in San Antonio on Dec. 13, 2004. You people unanimously approved a gift to Fuelberg of $2,050,521.60. You gave him the two million dollars to retain his services. At his trial, Bennie will show the Court that it was your idea, not his.
You people are on the Board Minutes for buying the Kimble County Co-op on July 17, 2000, $14.550 millions for a money loser. You people bought the defunct Soft Ware company out in Santa Fe as a party resort for the Fuelberg Family. You also bought the money-losing "Texas Skies."
Bennie Fuelburg and his platoon of lawyers will have no problem proving that you guys ran the whole show and he was just a faithful employee. You all have a fine summer!
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AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Indictments unsealed Friday against the former general manager and top outside lawyer at the Pedernales Electric Cooperative say they arranged for thousands of dollars of co-op money to be paid to relatives of PEC executives.
According to the indictments, Bennie Fuelberg, who ran the Johnson City-based co-op for more than 30 years, and lawyer Walter Demond, directed payments exceeding $200,000 to Curtis Fuelberg, who is Fuelberg's brother, and William Price, who is the son of former Director E.B. Price.
The indictments don't say what happened to the money. Curtis Fuelberg, a lobbyist, has said the payments were legitimate. William Price's lawyer has said his client did nothing wrong.
Both Fuelberg and Demond are named in the indictments on three identical felony counts — misapplication of fiduciary property, theft and money laundering.
The second count of the indictment, theft, stated that Fuelberg and Demond "unlawfully appropriated" more than $200,000 of PEC money between Nov. 14, 1996, and March 13, 2007, and made the payments to Curtis Fuelberg and Price.
In the third count, money laundering, the indictment said the defendants did "transfer the proceeds of a criminal activity" involving the theft of $100,000 to less than $200,000 of PEC money from Sept. 1, 2005, to March 13, 2007.
The third count doesn't name anyone else.
Attorneys for Fuelberg and Demond have said their clients would not take money they did not earn.
The Texas attorney general's office, which is overseeing the grand jury investigation, declined to comment.
Fuelberg turned himself in Thursday night to the Blanco County sheriff's department and was released on $30,000 bail. Demond did the same Friday, said Julie Theriot, dispatcher at the Blanco County Jail.
Both men are expected to be arraigned next month.
3 comments:
But will the "slime" finally hit the fan?
The PEC Food Chain
One question: Why did it take so long for all this greed, power and corruption to surface and steps taken to punish offenders?
Many had to enable these actions. I have been writing about PEC for the past 6 years and no one wanted to act on this issue, e.g., the governor, lawmakers, PUC, various DA's, the AG, media, etc. Those folks are as guilty as are the vermin being tried and also as the ones who still sit as Directors of PEC, who are still manipulating PEC policy and dictating actions.
It's time to deal with this nonsense correctly. So far, it still isn't being done.
Peter, Saturday's election results has thankfully eliminated additional potential slime from the board. I eagerly await the early actions of the new, and finally, reform voting majority.
I am expecting another motion calling for the resignations of the remaining old guard members. Their presence on our coop's governing board remains a disgraceful fact.
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