The former head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation's largest public utility, has agreed to plead guilty Monday to charges of taking bribes in a corruption scandal that resulted from an automated billing disaster that stuck ratepayers with exorbitant bills, federal prosecutors said.
David Wright, 62, admitted in court papers that he schemed with a lawyer hired to help resolve the billing fiasco and secretly pushed through a three-year $30 million no-bid contract for a company he created, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.
The water and power department approved the contract in June 2017, but Wright did not disclose that he planned to retire and join the company as CEO for a $1 million-a-year salary and a luxury car, the statement said.
Wright, who faces up to 10 years in prison, is scheduled to appear in court on Friday.
Federal prosecutors said he signed the plea agreement last month before prosecutors announced charges against the lawyer, Paul Paradis, whose company received the no-bid contract.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti removed Wright from his job in 2019 after the FBI raided the water and power department and other city offices months before his expected departure date.
Last week, a judge agreed to plead guilty to one count of bribery. He had been hired by the city attorney's office in the billing disaster that left hundreds of thousands of utility customers with excessive bills.
Prosecutors said that Wright instructed Paradis to destroy incriminating emails and text messages after he began cooperating with the FBI.
The statement said Wright's wiped cellphone and a burner cellphone were delivered to him at one point in a clandestine dead-drop maneuver so they could continue to communicate.
In the year 2019 Wright urged the water and power department board to award a $10 million cybersecurity contract to another Paradis company.
Wright didn't tell board members about his previous arrangement with the attorney or a new agreement where Wright would get a sign-on bonus of $600,000 or $1.2 million, in addition to an increase in his ownership of the company, the statement said.
Prosecutors said Wright suggested that he start working secretly for Paradis' company before he retired from the water and power department, and called Paradis his ATM.