A former official with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) was sentenced today to two years and six months in prison for his role in a bribery scheme involving a federal contract and committing $1.5 million in tax fraud.

Frederick J. Leavitt, 50, of Henderson, Nev., pleaded guilty in October 2019 to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States. In addition to imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Andrew P. Gordon ordered Leavitt to pay restitution in the amount of $704,002.

According to court documents, Leavitt had been employed by the USBR as Director of the Financial Management Office for the Lower Colorado Region, which includes the Hoover Dam. From about February 2015 through about February 2016, Leavitt and co-conspirator Dustin M. Lewis — a certified public accountant employed by L.L. Bradford & Company, an accounting firm in Las Vegas — devised and executed a scheme to defraud the United States. Leavitt had been assigned to a selection committee that awarded government contracts to perform auditing services for USBR programs. As part of the honest services fraud conspiracy, Lewis paid more than $150,000 in bribes to Leavitt, which they agreed to conceal. In exchange, Leavitt steered an audit contract to L.L. Bradford.

In a separate tax fraud conspiracy, Leavitt and Lewis worked together to file fraudulent tax forms for tax year 2013, on behalf of six business entities that claimed over $11,000,000 collectively in false business deductions. As a result, they caused a tax loss to the IRS in excess of $1.5 million.

Co-conspirator Lewis pleaded guilty in January 2020. He is scheduled to be sentenced on August 18, 2022.

Acting U.S. Attorney Christopher Chiou for the District of Nevada and Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division made the announcement.

This case was investigated by the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, and the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Interior. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre and Tax Division Trial Attorney Patrick Burns are prosecuting the case.

NEW ORLEANS – United States Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that PATRICK HUSE, age 40, of Perkinston, Mississippi, pled guilty today to a violation of Title 33, United States Code, Section 1321(b)(3) and 1319(c)(1)(A).

According to today’s guilty plea, HUSE was employed as a “Person-in-Charge” ( “PIC”) on Main Pass 310A (“MP-310A”), an oil and gas production platform.  In July 2015, workers on MP-310A noticed a sheen on the surface of the surface of the water surrounding the platform. The sheen meant that the platform was discharging oil or other hazardous substances into the Gulf of Mexico. The workers alerted HUSE, a PIC on MP-310A. The workers told HUSE that they believed the sheen to be the result of sand buildup in filtration equipment on MP-310A. HUSE ordered the workers to remove the sand buildup from the filtration equipment in lieu of a complete shut-in, hoping the sheen would dissipate.  These measures failed to stop the platform from sheening, so the workers shut down the platform through an emergency shutdown of the entire platform.

HUSE faces a maximum term of imprisonment of one year, a fine of $2,500 to $25,000 per day of violation, a maximum term of supervised release of up to one year, and a $25 mandatory special assessment fee. Sentencing has been scheduled by District Judge Barry Ashe for July 7, 2022.

United States Attorney Evans praised the work of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior Office of Inspector General, Energy Investigations Unit, in investigating this matter. Assistant United States Attorneys Spiro G. Latsis and J. Ryan McLaren are in charge of the prosecution.