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Press Release

Arkansas Man Sentenced to 27 Months for Fraud

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A Cabot, Arkansas man, who previously admitted paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to receive millions of dollars of construction work, was sentenced today to 27 months in prison.

U.S. District Court Judge Danny C. Reeves sentenced 50-year-old Rocky Williams for the crime of conspiracy to commit honest services fraud.           

Williams previously admitted that he conspired with James Newton, an employee at Saint Joseph Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky, between 2009 and 2012.  Williams admitted that he paid over $500,000 in bribes to Newton, concealing them as payments of credit card and fuel bills, vehicle and rent payments, and gifts such as a motorcycle, an all-terrain vehicle, vacations, golf club memberships, a pool table, furniture, and home furnishings.  In exchange, Newton, the Executive Director of Facilities responsible for assigning Saint Joseph Hospital’s general contracting work, steered over $8,000,000 of construction jobs to Williams’s company, ZaneRock Construction.

Williams pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud Saint Joseph Hospital, on December 17, 2017.  Newton, 52-years-old and most recently living in Pace, Florida, had previously pleaded guilty to the same charge, on September 15, 2017.  Williams and Newton were both given sentences of 27 months in federal prison, and both will share responsibility for repaying $532,660 in restitution to Saint Joseph Hospital.  Williams will report to prison on August 27, 2018.  Newton began his prison sentence on March 12, 2018.

Under federal law, Williams and Newton must serve 85 percent of their prison sentences; and upon their release, they will both be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for three additional years.

Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and Amy Hess, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau Investigation, jointly announced the sentence.  The investigation was conducted by the FBI.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Neeraj Gupta.

Updated May 27, 2018

Topic
Financial Fraud