Former Manager of Tom Green County’s Water Control and Improvement District Pleads Guilty in Federal Court
Yantis Green Admits Embezzling Nearly $62,800 from District
| U.S. Attorney’s Office October 18, 2012 |
LUBBOCK, TX—Yantis Dean Green, the former manager of the Tom Green County Water Control and Improvement District No. 1, (district) appeared this morning in federal court in Lubbock, Texas, and pleaded guilty to an information charging one count of theft concerning programs receiving federal funds and aiding and abetting, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas. Green, 49, of San Angelo, Texas, faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. In addition, the court may order Green to pay restitution arising from all relevant conduct. A sentencing date was not set.
In accordance with a contract dated in 1959, the district agreed to repay to the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, $4 million for the district’s share of the cost of constructing a 65-mile, concrete-lined irrigation canal to transport water from the Twin Buttes Reservoir to eastern Tom Green County. The construction of the reservoir was completed in 1963 and the district provides water to approximately 10,000 to 15,000 acres of farmland.
According to documents filed in the case, from December 2003 through July 2012, Green was the manager of the district and oversaw the day-to-day operations including oversight of two to three field workers, the district’s only other employees. Green was terminated by the district in July 2012, after the district’s board of directors discovered that Green had embezzled from the district.
The factual resume filed states that Green embezzled, stole, or obtained by fraud, by using the district’s credit cards for personal purchases, approximately $62,799. Green disguised the nature of the credit card purchases by making false entries in the district’s accounting records. He used the district’s checking account to make payments on the credit card accounts that included those personal purchases.
The case is being investigated by the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ann C. Roberts of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Lubbock is prosecuting.