Published: November 14, 2008 08:08 am      

Miss. contractor, official charged with bribery

JACKSON — A federal grand jury has charged a south Mississippi businessman with giving a county official paper bags filled with cash in exchange for debris removal contracts funded by hurricane relief dollars.

Thomas Allen Landon, president and owner of Mid South Pipe Inc., could face up to 40 years in prison if convicted of bribing Greene County supervisor Earnest Holder, U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton said Wednesday in a news release.

The six-count indictment against Landon does not estimate the value of the emergency contracts his company received, though it does say the government is seeking to recover at least $159,000 from him.

A separate indictment against Holder claims the supervisor solicited and accepted bribes from September 2005, immediately after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, to May 2007. It alleges he awarded contracts to Landon that were paid with federal disaster assistance funds.

In return, the grand jury alleged, Landon left at least two paper bags filled with cash in Holder’s truck on more than one occasion, for a total of $17,500.

Holder is accused of providing false testimony to a federal grand jury.

“I have never took no money from no contractor, no. No sir,” Holder said in response to a questions before the grand jury. He claimed to not know how the bags of cash got into his vehicle, according to the indictment.

“I felt like it might’ve could’ve been the FBI or somebody put that money in there because my truck stays unlocked all the time. It couldn’t have been just Landon. It could’ve been anybody. I didn’t know whose money it was,” Holder told the grand jury, according to the indictment.

The indictment against Landon also accuses him of falsifying paperwork to cover up the deal.

Landon appeared Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Robert H. Walker in Gulfport and was released on $25,000 bond. He also faces a maximum fine of $1.75 million.

Holder is charged with bribery and perjury and could face up to 15 years. He has been released from jail on a $20,000 bond.

Both indictments were made public Wednesday. Calls late Wednesday and early Thursday to Landon’s office in Lucedale and Holder’s home by The Associated Press were not returned.