OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — The former director of a nonprofit housing agency has agreed to plead guilty to charges against her and testify against an ex-state employee.
Linda Balducci of Shelby pleaded guilty last week before U.S. District Judge Michael Mills to one count of conspiracy to embezzle money.
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Court papers show that Balducci also will testify against co-defendant Connie Lewis, a former Mississippi Development Authority employee accused of accepting more than $250,000 in bribes to steer work to a Mound Bayou contractor.
The conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Prosecutors agreed not to pursue two other counts of the indictment against Balducci.
Prosecutors alleged the contractor, Jimmy Stokes, kicked $90,000 back to Balducci when she ran Southeastern Development Opportunities, a group that received grants to build low-income housing in a number of Mississippi Delta towns.
The kickbacks supposedly came through sham payments of rent worth $59,400 to the organization and the purchase of three acres in Bolivar County from Balducci for $30,000. In exchange, prosecutors say Balducci approved $358,500 in invoices that Stokes submitted to dig a drainage ditch for the Isola apartments when the work only cost $20,000.
Stokes has not been indicted on the bribery charges. But he did plead guilty in 2009 to lying to an FBI agent about bribing a bank teller to deposit $1 million in bogus checks in 2004. Stokes was ordered to serve 10 months in federal prison, three years on supervised release and pay back $758,000 as part of that agreement.
Lewis is alleged to have approved invoices for federally-subsidized apartment complexes that Stokes was building in Isola, Batesville, Houston, Hollandale and Itta Bena from 2006 through 2008, when she knew Stokes was inflating the invoices to steal money. In each instance, the indictment says that after MDA paid him, Stokes wrote large checks that other people cashed, and then Stokes conveyed the cash to Lewis. The indictment says Lewis received more than $250,000 in bribes, depositing $235,531 into her checking account at a credit union.
“Ms. Balducci’s guilty plea doesn’t influence me one way or the other on how I’m going to represent Connie Lewis,” said Tom Fortner, her lawyer. He declined further comment.
Prosecutors said Lewis faced up to 85 years in prison and $2.25 million in fines at the time of the indictment.
