The Chronicle’s Dan Feldstein has been doing a good job over the past couple of years of keeping track of the federal corruption investigation that has been going on in Houston and Cleveland, Ohio. In this article from today’s Chronicle, Mr. Feldstein reports that Nate Gray, the Cleveland businessman who was convicted earlier this year of bribing two former City of Houston officials from the administration of former Houston Mayor Lee Brown, was sentenced yesterday to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay $1.5 million to the Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Feldstein also notes that testimony of an FBI agent during the Gray trial indicates that the corruption probe involving former Brown Administration officials is continuing in Houston.
The two former Brown Administration officials who took the bribes from Gray — chief of staff Oliver Spellman and building services director Monique McGilbra — previously copped pleas in agreeing to testify against Gray and were sentenced to far lesser sentences earlier this year. The Justice Department news release on the Gray sentencing and the corruption probe is here, and the previous posts on this bribery scandal are here.