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Contractor Admits Guilt in $1.5 Million Bid-Rigging Scheme

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ALBUQUERQUE – A Shiprock man pleaded guilty in federal court to orchestrating a bid-rigging and money laundering scheme that defrauded a federally-funded Native American educational institution of approximately $1.5 million over a three-year period.

Alleged Ethics Violations, DOI, DC

Report Number
22-0932-I

We did not substantiate allegations that a DOI official did not comply with the ethics regulation regarding personal and business relationships.

Investigation

Former Water District General Manager Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Water Theft and Separate Tax Charge

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FRESNO, Calif. — Dennis Falaschi, 78, of Aptos, pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiring to take federally owned water and one count of filing a false tax return, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court records, from 1992 through approximately April 2015, Falaschi was the general manager for a public water district in Fresno and Merced Counties (PWD) that sold water to farmers with over 38,000 acres of farmland. PWD obtained water that it sold by purchasing water from the federal government and collecting drainage water from farms. The federal water that PWD purchased came from the Delta-Mendota Canal (DMC), which is a federally owned canal operated by the United States Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation. PWD purchased federal water from the DMC pursuant to a contract that it entered into with the Bureau of Reclamation.