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Thurs: Another Plea
posted at 2008-05-23 01:26 | Last modified 2008-05-23 01:46
Federal prosecutors announced today that Boyce Hudson, a former senior DENR official, will plead guilty Tuesday on two counts of felony corruption.
The charges are here; but in a nutshell, Hudson will admit to expediting environmental permits for an ethanol plant in return for a promise of $196,000.
So who is Boyce Hudson?
According to the federal charges, Hudson was
a Senior Field Officer in DENR’s Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Office, a position he held until his retirement from DENR on June 30, 2005. As a Senior Field Officer, Hudson, who worked primarily out of Raleigh, North Carolina, served as DENR’s liaison with members of the state legislature and the Governor’s Office.
Hudson also served on DENR’s Quality Guidance Team, implementing “organizational excellence.”
Even more interesting, perhaps, is who his friends are.
In addition to his work with DENR, Hudson served on the board of North Carolina's Northeast Partnership, a private non-profit offshoot that did the marketing for the Northeastern North Carolina Economic Development Commission.
The Partnership’s Executive Director at the time was Rick Watson. You might remember that name from the Randy Parton Theater scandal. The N&O’s Jerry Allegood has more background here.
Watson also surfaced in connection with the Jim Black investigation: Black’s former aide and political director, Meredith Norris, worked with Watson as lobbyist for his group.
Watson, according to the conservative Carolina Journal, was involved in a brouhaha over an earlier ethanol plant that almost got built in eastern NC. That corporation, DFI, ended up putting its plans on ice due to trouble with permits, access, and a natural gas supply.
AEP?
The indictment doesn’t name the company that agreed to pay off Hudson, but from the details given about the unnamed company, there's a good chance it's Raleigh’s Agri-Ethanol Products. Both are NC ethanol makers founded in 2004; both doubled their initial plans for a 54M gallon/yr ethanol plant in eastern NC; and TBJ’s Amanda Hoyle says one of AEP’s former employees was subpoenaed by the feds back in March.
(NOTE: The federal charges do not name AEP, and no one connected with AEP has been charged with anything as far as we know. This is just speculation. So consider yourself duly caveat-ed.)
AEP is closely related to DFI. It’s the brainchild of Triangle real-estate mogul Dave Brady and former Wake Forest mayor Jim Perry, who, according to Carolina Journal’s Don Carrington, had been involved in rounding up potential funding partners for DFI.
As Hoyle reports, DFI was having trouble raising money. So Perry went to Revenue Secretary Norris Tolson, Rep Joe Tolson, and Rep Arthur Williams for help in 2003. That meeting resulted in a state tax break for ethanol plants, passed by the legislature in 2004 - the same year Perry and Brady formed AEP.
Around that time, feds say "some of the owners of the Ethanol Company" introduced an unnamed “Ethanol Company Executive” to Boyce Hudson, who offered to grease the skids for permits in return for a promise of $196,000 – a lump sum of $100K after he left office, plus a two year consulting contract.
According to the feds, the company got its permits, but not its funding, and Hudson never got most of the money.
In October, AEP shuttered its Raleigh office. The N&O's Sabine Vollmer reported this March that major backer Richard Branson (yes, that Richard Branson) is backing out and filing suit to recoup his losses.
There’s no shortage of names connected to this. But it’s late, and that’s as far as I’m digging into it tonight. Let’s just say Tuesday could get really interesting.
Comments? Drop me a line.
