JeffCo Contractor Pays Fine

A construction firm convicted of fraud in connection with repairing Jefferson County’s sewer system has finally paid nearly $20 million in fines and court costs assessed more than five years ago, Alabama U.S. attorney Joyce White Vance said Friday.

Roland Pugh Construction Co. was convicted in 2006 of federal mail fraud and bribery charges. The company filed for bankruptcy the same year, which interrupted the county government’s ability to collect the fines and fees.

“Repeated appeals called into question the finality of the convictions, further preventing collection of the fine,” Vance said, adding that the bankruptcy case and appeals could have had “the effect of dissipating funds over the years.”

Assistant U.S. attorney Richard O’Neal, who handles much of the office’s bankruptcy work, came up with a plan that preserved the county’s ability to collect the fine almost six years later.

After the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction and judgment last fall, the U.S. attorney’s office got a court order in the bankruptcy case directing Pugh to pay $9,200 in court fees and $19.4 million in fines to the Justice Department’s Crime Victims Fund.

Jefferson County received restitution of $239,652 from Pugh in 2008.

Vance said the U.S. attorney’s office collected more than $30 million in fines, fees and restitution from 17 individuals and five firms convicted in the probe of the sewer construction project and the refinancing of debt for the program.

The county filed for bankruptcy in early November after failing to research a restructuring agreement on $3.14 billion of outstanding defaulted sewer warrants.

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