Former El Paso school board president Salvador “Sal” Mena Jr. pleaded guilty in federal today to wire fraud, conspiracy and taking bribes, along with the man who bribed him.
The hearing before Federal District Court Judge Frank Montalvo was on the docket for Mena’s guilty plea, but standing with Mena in court was Gary William Lange, a former executive with two companies Strategic Government Solutions Inc. and its subsidiary, ESP. [Editor's note: The name of the subsidiary was corrected at 2:30 p.m., Feb. 19, 2009]
Lange’s name had never been publicly mentioned before in connection with the FBI’s public corruption investigation into county government and at least two El Paso school districts.
Mena, who served 14 years as a school trustee, stopped on the courthouse steps after the hearing to read a statement apologizing to El Pasoans for his deeds.
“First of all I want to apologize to all my family, my friends and to this community for my actions,” he said. “I am disappointed in myself and am fully aware that my actions were wrong.
“I did not live up to my standards, which this community deserves. I am very, very sorry for what happened.”
MENA'S STATEMENT
Mena, who was named in an eight count indictment last August, pleaded guilty today to two counts in that indictment as part of a plea bargain with the U.S. attorney’s office and Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof.
The first count to which Mena pleaded guilty contains the charge of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and deprivation of honest services for scheming with unindicted co-conspirators to use the mail service to convey checks and bills resulting from a contract influenced by bribery.
The second count to which Mena pleaded guilty accused him of conspiring with four unindicted co-conspirators to commit wire fraud – arranging illegal acts on the telephone or via computer – to accept and provide “bribes in the form of cash money and other benefits to the defendant in exchange for his influence and his vote in his capacity as an EPISD trustee, to award a multimillion dollar contract to a vendor.”
One specific item in the list of overt acts states that on Feb. 14, 2005, Mena accepted $5,000 from the vendor “as a bribe disguised as a campaign contribution from a political action committee for his continuing support and vote for Vendo-6 as a contractor with EPISD.”
But Mena’s campaign finance report for that period shows no $5,000 contribution.
Although the government did not name the company involved, former El Paso school board President Dan Wever, who was succeeded by Mena as president, said the contract involved was with Strategic Government Solutions (SGS) and Lange.
In 2003, the school board awarded a contract to SGS to provide third-party billing services that were to help the district recover hundreds of thousands of dollars in Medicaid payments for services the district provided to Medicaid-eligible children. That contract expired in October 2007.
The SGS contract had two parts, a software part and a Medicaid reimbursement part,” Wever said. “Lang was head of the software side. They were making software for the district, which was paying them $1.5 million but the system never did work.
“The software was for the nurses and everyone to enter this data and it would automatically go to the forms for Medicaid reimbursement.”
Wever said the contract also involved former school superintendent Charles Tafoya who hired Thomas Gabaldon, first as a consultant and then as an assistant superintendent.
Gabaldon, Wever said, had been the New Mexico representative for Mecca Tech, a Medicaid reimbursement company based in Michigan that Lange headed.
Wever said SGS and a subsidiary, ESP, bid to provide the Medicaid reimbursement service for the El Paso school district and were recommended by the administration, though not by the employee committee that had reviewed the competing proposals.
“The school board didn’t get to see this stuff, and didn’t know the committee had recommended someone else,” he said.
At the time, he said, El Paso lawyer and former County Judge Luther Jones was working for the school district and in the Medicaid area.
“He told the board it was a good deal,” Wever said.
Jones is referred to as co-conspirator No. 1 in the first public corruption case that came to light two years ago, that of Travis Ketner, the former chief of staff to County Judge Anthony Cobos.
Ketner pleaded guilty to a number of conspiracy and bribery charges and implicated 19 other individuals and companies, including Jones, in the document that contained the charges.
Wever said the board approved the SGS contract after his term as trustee ended and while Mena was the new board president.
“I became aware of all this after the fact,” Wever said.
EPISD statement
As a result of NewspaperTree.com’s request for information about Lange, the El Paso school district issued a statement from the current board president David Dodge.
“The El Paso Independent School District is extremely disappointed to learn that Mr. Sal Mena broke laws involving the public trust and the community’s right to honest services while serving as an elected official of the district,” the statement begins. “Mr. Mena served on the board of trustees for a total of four terms.
“Mr. Mena resigned from the Board of Trustees in August 2007, citing health reasons. Mr. Mena had been elected to serve as the Trustee from single-member District #3, which includes the Austin High School area.
“We will review the details of the factual basis of the plea agreements if and as they become available, in order to determine if the District needs to take any actions. We also note that Gary Lange pleaded guilty at the same time as Mr. Mena. Mr. Lange is believed to have been an employee or principal of Strategic Governmental Solutions. SGS's contract with the District ended in July 2007.
“We appreciate law enforcement's efforts and persistence in this matter and hope that justice will be served. Law enforcement must have specific reasons why they continue to keep co-conspirators or other involved persons or entities unnamed. We will not speculate as to those identities, but will continue to respect the federal investigation and urge you to contact law enforcement with any specific questions.”
(Download a copy of the full statement below)
Today, Lang pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud and depriving the public of honest services by committing bribery.
He admitted in court to giving campaign contributions and cash to Mena for his support and agreed with the statement read in court that as a result of his actions he secured a multi-million contact with the vendor he represented.
The pleas by Mena and Lange bring the number of people who have pleaded guilty to public corruption charges since June 2007 to 11.
No sentencing date was set for Mena and Lange, but, as in the cases of the nine pleaded guilty to corruption charges before them, the prison time they are eventually sentenced to serve will depend on the extent of their cooperation with the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office in providing information that assists them with existing investigations or opening the doors to new ones.
Three others who have been indicted as part of the investigation were tied to El Paso’s National Center for Employment of the Disabled (now ReadyOne Industries).
They are NCED’s former CEO Robert E. “Bob” Jones, former Chief Operating Officer Alonzo “Ernie” Lopez and a former board member of the nonprofit, Patrick Woods.
Statement from U.S. attorney's office
The U.S. Attorney's office issued a statement regarding today's pleas afterward.
"According to the indictment filed in this case, Mena, during the time he was an elected Trustee of the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD), conspired with others to devise a scheme to defraud the EPISD and the citizens of El Paso living in the EPISD, of the right to his honest services performed in his capacity as an elected EPISD Trustee, in the affairs of the EPISD. It further alleges that the defendant set up a sham consulting contract with a vendor whereby he received income, but provided no consulting services. Additionally, in exchange for his vote, support and influence for vendors, he instructed vendors seeking to do business with EPISD to make contributions to his election and re-election campaigns. The Indictment also alleged Mena accepted cash bribes in exchange for his vote and official influence.
"Also appearing this morning before U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo, 56-year-old Gary Lange, of Okimos, Michigan, pleaded guilty to a one count Information charging him with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and deprivation of the right to honest services. By pleading guilty, Lange admitted to participating with Mena in a scheme to defraud the EPISD and the citizens of El Paso by paying Mena a $5,000 bribe as well as making other political contributions in exchange for securing a multi-million dollar vendor contract. As a result, Lange, who is on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond, faces up to twenty years in federal prison and a maximum $250,000 fine. No sentencing date has been scheduled."
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To reach David Crowder, write to dcrowder@epmediagroup.com or call (915) 351-0605, ext. 30
More Information: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSn9byzzZr0
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