The now three year-long criminal investigation into corruption of the City of Houston administration of former Houston Mayor Lee Brown turned another page yesterday as this Southern District of Texas U.S. Attorney press release reports that federal authorities have charged Atlanta, Ga. businessman, Floyd Gary Thacker, with mail and wire fraud charges. Dan Feldstein’s Chronicle article on the indictment is here, and previous posts on the criminal probe into Brown Administration corruption are here.
The implication of the form of the charges against Mr. Thacker — a criminal information rather than a grand jury indictment — is that Thacker is cooperating with prosecutors in the probe. Thacker is accused of bribing former Brown Administration director of building services Monique McGilbra with thousands of dollars in cash and gifts in return for favorable treatment in regard to a city energy services contract. Thacker’s company designed the energy saving system for the city, but the Bill White Administration ultimately canceled Thacker’s contract in 2004 and paid Thacker liquidated damages of $202,000.