Former Chelsea Selectman Found Guilty on Federal Extortion Charges
| U.S. Attorney’s Office September 18, 2013 |
BANGOR, ME—United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty, II announced today that a federal jury sitting in Bangor found Carole Swan, age 55, of Chelsea, Maine, guilty last night of three counts of extortion under color of official right.
According to the court records, Carole Swan was a member of the Chelsea Board of Selectman. Between January 2010 and February 2011, she used her position to extort and attempt to extort $20,000 from Frank Monroe Construction, a local construction company that plowed, salted, and sanded Chelsea’s roads.
The extortion charges each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and restitution. She will be sentenced after completion of a pre-sentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Internal Revenue Service; Department Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General (OIG); U.S. Department of Labor, OIG, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations; U.S. Postal Service, OIG; and the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office.