Pedernales Electric Cooperative (Texas)
Indictments say pair directed co-op money to relatives of PEC executives
Austin American-Statesman
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Indictments unsealed Friday against the former general manager and
top outside lawyer at the Pedernales Electric Cooperative say they
arranged for thousands of dollars of co-op money to be paid to
relatives of PEC executives.
According to the indictments, Bennie Fuelberg, who ran the Johnson
City-based co-op for more than 30 years, and lawyer Walter Demond,
directed payments exceeding $200,000 to Curtis Fuelberg, who is
Fuelberg's brother, and William Price, who is the son of former
Director E.B. Price. . . .
Both Fuelberg and Demond are named in the indictments on three
identical felony counts — misapplication of fiduciary property, theft
and money laundering. . . . Both men are expected to be arraigned next month.
The indictments are the first result of a five-month grand jury
inquiry into wrongdoing at PEC, which has more than 229,000 members in
Central Texas.
The payments were uncovered last year in a review by Navigant
Consulting Inc. . . . [that] found $510,000 in
unexplained payments from PEC to Clark Thomas & Winters, which had
been the co-op's outside law firm for 70 years.