State Says Worker Had No Leverage
By Benjamin Niolet, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
May 24–The state environment official accused of soliciting cash to guarantee a permit would have been selling a promise state officials say he couldn’t deliver.
Boyce Allen Hudson didn’t work directly with state officials who review and grant permits, and although he talked to those who did, his influence went nowhere, Diana Kees, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said Friday.
"I believe from what I’ve seen he did talk to the permitting staff, but he did not influence any decision," Kees said.
Hudson, 67, is accused of soliciting more than $100,000 from an ethanol production company to help the company get the permits it would need to build a plant, according to federal court documents. Federal authorities allege that the deal was worked out over lunch at Winston’s Grille in Raleigh on April 15, 2004. Hudson is scheduled to plead guilty to the charges Tuesday, according to court records.
Efforts to reach Hudson and his attorneys Friday were unsuccessful.
The federal court documents accusing Hudson of public corruption do not name the ethanol company.
But a subpoena from federal investigators to the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources, released Friday in response to a request under the state’s public records law, asked for documents related to the agency’s contact with 20 individuals or companies. First on the list is Agri-Ethanol Products of Raleigh. Second on the list is David Lee Brady, who was the company’s manager, according to corporation records on file with the secretary of state.
Two others on the federal government’s list were employees of the company. Another — Gardner Payne — was a lobbyist for the company in 2005 and 2006, according to state records.
Efforts Friday to reach Brady and Payne were unsuccessful.
Agri-Ethanol had planned a $150 million ethanol plant near Aurora in Beaufort County. The company had secured an investment from Virgin Fuels, an investment tool of British billionaire Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airlines.
The project had challenges because of the rural location, said Vann Rogerson, president and chief executive of North Carolina’s Northeast Commission, a regional economic development group funded by state and private money that worked with Agri-Ethanol on site selection and other issues.
Ethanol, a biofuel made from corn or other agricultural products, sparked an investment bonanza, Rogerson said. So far, no one has struck it rich.
Hudson was a board member of the Northeast economic development group about 10 years ago, Rogerson said. When Hudson announced his retirement in 2005, he called developers and economic development officials to announce he was starting a consulting business to help companies get permits from the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Rogerson said.
"He called just about everybody in economic development and said he was setting up a consulting business and would help anybody that needed permitting," Rogerson said.
According to court documents, Hudson and the ethanol company agreed that if the company got its permits in 90 days, Hudson would receive $100,000 in cash after he retired. Then the ethanol company would hire Hudson as a consultant, paying him $4,000 per month for two years with a $500-a-month expense account. Hudson and the company later agreed the payment would be due after the ethanol plant was fully funded. The company eventually paid him $15,000, according to investigators.
Hudson’s annual state salary when he retired in June 2005 was $62,935, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Officials declined to release Hudson’s entire personnel file. He was a senior field officer in the Office of Conservation and Community Affairs, which promotes long-term conservation of the state’s resources.
The state department learned of the allegations against Hudson in November 2007, when FBI agents sought information, Kees said. The agents interviewed three Division of Air Quality employees in one of the agency’s regional offices.
"We didn’t know that this was happening when he was employed," Kees said.
Agri-Ethanol folded in September, said Terry Ruse, a former employee named in the federal government’s subpoena. Ruse said he had no information about the case and referred questions to Brady.
(Staff writer Dan Kane contributed to this report.)
ben.niolet@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4521
Staff writer Dan Kane contributed to this report.
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