PBS&J insider alleges donation scheme
A former manager in the engineering firm PBS&J detailed an alleged company practice of using employees as 'straw' donors to political campaigns.
Oct. 02, 2006
By Dan Christensen and Patrick Danner
The Miami Herald
Copyright 2006
It was March 15, 2002, and a top man in Atlanta for the engineering firm PBS&J had a political headache.
A friend of Gov. Roy Barnes was clamoring for a contribution to the campaign of Sen. Max Cleland, a fellow Democrat from Georgia. To make things worse, a PBS&J rival for government contracts was hosting a Cleland fundraiser.
So, James Breland, a PBS&J senior vice president, faxed a note and a donation request form to headquarters in Miami. The fax -- The Miami Herald obtained a copy from the company's former accounting manager -- relayed the promise that a contribution "would not go unnoticed by Gov. Barnes.''
That same day, PBS&J approved a $2,000 contribution. But when the money was handed over at a luncheon later, it was in the name of not the company, but Breland.
The episode was part of a sweeping, decades long practice in which PBS&J used employees as ''straw'' donors to make thousands of illicit contributions to politicians across the country, according to the former accounting manager. Employees wrote the checks, and then the company reimbursed them.
The former manager, Maria A. Garcia of Hialeah, is one of three ex-employees who pleaded guilty Thursday to embezzling $36 million. She made a deal with investigators in exchange for giving information.
Former Chief Financial Officer W. Scott DeLoach of Aventura also pleaded guilty Thursday in the theft and to using six employees and their relatives as ''straw'' donors in the 2004 campaign of Florida Sen. Mel Martinez.
CONTRIBUTION LIMITS
The alleged scheme was a way around campaign contribution limits and a law that prohibits corporate donations to candidates for federal office. A federal grand jury in Miami is now investigating.
Garcia said it was her job to oversee the reimbursements.
''They felt they had to give to get work,'' Garcia said. 'I'd hear them say, `We need to make sure we are in good standing with everybody.' ''
PBS&J acknowledges that some improper donations were made in the 1990s but denies any widespread system of illegal giving. Mark Schnapp, a lawyer for PBS&J, said the improper donations were "not of any significant magnitude.''
Schnapp also denied that the donations won government contracts for PBS&J, a national engineering and construction company with 3,900 employees and $530 million in revenue last year.
''There is absolutely no basis to believe that any political contribution would influence the award of any government contract,'' he said. "PBS&J is awarded contracts on its ability and nothing else.''
Schnapp would not address the Breland episode, citing the ongoing investigation by the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office. Breland, now retired in South Carolina, did not return two phone calls to his home. Both Barnes and Cleland of Georgia lost their races.
The Breland contribution was just one of the complex illegal donations that were part of the way PBS&J did business, Garcia said.
The story, according to Garcia: She used different accounting tricks to make reimbursements look like legitimate bonuses or business expenses. There were forms for repayment requests. When the ''straw'' donors owed tax on their reimbursement, the company covered it by raising their paychecks.
''On one occasion, I got a list with 40 to 80 names on it and reimbursement amounts from $5,000 to $20,000,'' said Garcia, 43.
Another employee who pleaded guilty to the embezzlement, former Accounts Payable Manager Rosario Licata of Davie, was also involved, Garcia said. Among other things, she typed Breland's check.
Licata's attorney, Jay Moskowitz, said he could not confirm or deny anything.
FLORIDA RECIPIENTS
PBS&J was generous with its donations. Its political action committees and its executives and their relatives gave more than $500,000 to candidates in 14 states since 2003. Among the biggest recipients in Florida were Republican Sen. Mel Martinez ($10,600), Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson ($6,000) and the Republican Party ($47,000).
Managers and up -- not low-level employees -- were called on to give, Garcia said.
''They'd be solicited one on one,'' she said. 'They'd call the vice presidents in and tell them, `This is how much you need to give.' ''
Garcia started as a clerk in 1978 when the company was called Post Buckley Schuh & Jernigan, and worked under two chief financial officers.
A COMPANY OFFICER
The first, Richard Wickett, used the PBS&J subsidiary Seminole Development in the 1980s and early 1990s to write the reimbursement checks, according to Garcia. She said Wickett instructed her to create expense reports in case anybody had questions.
Wickett phoned employees to solicit contributions.
'But that was after he'd get a call and I'd hear him say, `I'll start on it right away,' '' Garcia said.
Garcia remembers Wickett as a formidable force who sometimes responded angrily to underlings' questions that he didn't like.
''You are questioning God!'' he once told her. ``You don't question God! You just do what He says!''
Wickett, a retired PBS&J chairman, could not be reached for comment. His Miami attorney, Neal Sonnett, said his client has done nothing wrong.
''I am aware from scuttlebutt that DeLoach and his cohorts are trying to accuse Mr. Wickett of complicity in some of their shenanigans [aside from] the embezzlement,'' Sonnett said. "But I'm not aware of any evidence that Richard Wickett did anything prosecutable.''
Sonnett also said he doubted that Wickett said what Garcia claimed. "It's a great quote, but that's not Richard Wickett.''
Under DeLoach, reimbursement money came from PBS&J directly, Garcia said.
DeLoach stated in court records that in 2004, a PBS&J executive told him the company supported Sen. Martinez. DeLoach wrote a check to the Martinez campaign and asked four employees to do the same. He then reimbursed the employees and two spouses for $11,000 that went to the senator's campaign. A lawyer for the company says DeLoach acted on his own to make a good impression on Martinez.
Garcia recalled another time in September 2004 when DeLoach came to her desk and ordered her to write a $5,000 check to Democracy Believers, the joint political action committee of brothers Lincoln and Mario Díaz-Balart, both South Florida congressmen.
'He said, `I have to come up with that amount now. Run home and get your checkbook,' '' Garcia said.
She did. Federal records show that Democracy Believers got $5,000 each on Sept. 17, 2004, from Garcia, Licata and DeLoach. PBS&J's federal PAC also gave $5,000 that month, for a total of $20,000.
CONGRESSMAN'S VOTE
The contributions came in the two weeks after Mario Díaz-Balart's favorable vote on a multimillion-dollar bill for hurricane cleanup work that PBS&J was later hired to oversee. A spokesman for the congressman said there was no connection between the money and the vote.
''We've never had any contact with PBS&J about any legislation,'' said the spokesman, Tom Bean. ''We had no idea they were putting in for a contract.'' Bean also said he didn't know why those large contributions were made to Democracy Believers. ``Maybe they want to see a free Cuba -- that's what that PAC is about.''
Ironically, the woman who said she spent years managing PBS&J's illegal reimbursements was never compensated for her $5,000 contribution to Democracy Believers.
''I was embarrassed to ask [DeLoach] for it,'' Garcia said. ``We were embezzling all this money.''
dchristensen@MiamiHerald.com
© 2006 The Miami Herald: www.miami.com
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