Three convicted former CMEEC officials to be jailed by December 4

30 October 2024 17:41 • Last Update: 30 October 2024 17:41

Three former utility cooperative officials convicted on theft charges in connection with lavish trips to the Kentucky Derby and a West Virginia golf resort have been ordered to report to federal prison terms on or before the afternoon of Dec. 4.

Former Connecticut Municipal Electric Power Cooperative CEO Drew Rankin, former Norwich Utilities General Manager John Bilda, and former CMEEC and Norwich utilities commission chairman James Sullivan filed appeals of their prison sentences in a Sept. 6 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. rejected. New York.

The trio was convicted by a jury in U.S. District Court in New Haven in December 2021 on charges of theft from a program that received federal funds for their roles in planning trips to the Kentucky Derby and The Greenbrier golf resort in West Virginia in 2015. .

CMEEC hosted a trip for dozens of CMEEC senior staff, board members, family members, friends, merchandisers and public officials to the Kentucky Derby in 2015 and funded an even larger group that year for 2016. Four CMEEC officials visited the Greenbrier golf resort in August 2015 and a larger group in October.

In May 2023, U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, who presided over the criminal case, sentenced Rankin to 12 months in prison and three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $374,400 to CMEEC. Bilda and Sullivan were sentenced to six months in prison and ordered to pay $187,400 each in restitution. In handing down the harsher sentence, Meyer said he viewed Rankin as the lead organizer of the planned trips.

On Wednesday, Meyer filed an order requiring the three men to voluntarily surrender to a federal Bureau of Prisons-designated prison facility or to the U.S. Marshals in New Haven district court by noon on Dec. 4 to begin serving their sentences.

The next five weeks will allow the Bureau of Prisons to “designate facilities for defendants to serve their sentences,” the order said.

But the three men also have the option to start serving their sentences before December 4. Their attorneys were instructed to alert the court to inform them that they intended to begin serving with the U.S. Marshals Service or the Bureau of Prisons. early.

Wednesday’s order did not specify any deadline for payment of the ordered refund amounts to CMEEC.

[email protected]