Job openings at SAHA - Corruption Probe Leads To Five Staffers Indictments

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SAHA Staffers Indicted
Corruption Probe Leads To Five Staffers Indictments

POSTED: Thursday, June 18, 2009
UPDATED: 8:00 am CDT June 19, 2009

SAN ANTONIO -- Five former or current employees of the San Antonio Housing System have been indicted on charges related to a federal corruption investigation.

Four people were arrested Thursday on federal bribery charges, according to a news release. The four arrested Thursday include Roman Gabriel Reyes and Alfredo Fausto Lopez, both maintenance supervisors, Fidencio Martinez, a senior maintenance technician and Robert O. Olivares, a project manager.

Reyes, Olivares and Martinez were each charged with multiple counts of accepting items of value in exchange for influencing or securing repair contracts at SAHA properties. Lopez was indicted on one count of making false statement to authorities. A fifth man, project manager Vaughn Ernesto Manibog, was charged with three counts in the same investigation, according to the release.

According to the release, Manibog accepted about $1,900; Reyes, over $5,800; Martinez, about $1,800; and, Olivares, over $6,500. Lopez allegedly lied to FBI agents during an interview in May 2009 when questioned whether he was ever offered or received anything of value from any contractor doing business with SAHA, the release stated. The indictment alleges that Lopez failed to reveal that he accepted a motorcycle trailer from a SAHA contractor.

SAHA terminated the employees after the charges were announced, said SAHA President Lourdes Castro Ramirez, who added she would not tolerate the alleged actions from her employees.

"We have begun to conduct a review of all of our contracting and procurement practices to ensure that we are strengthening and do not have any gaps or weaknesses in our internal control systems," she said.

Castro Ramirez said she had not yet been told which projects were involved in the alleged bribery investigation. SAHA has been cooperating with federal investigators, according to the release.

If convicted on the charges of accepting bribes, Reyes, Olivares, Marintez and Manibog face a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison on each count. Lopez faces five years in prison if convicted on the false statement charge.

Copyright 2009 by KSAT.com All rights reserved.

SAHA Staffers Indicted - San Antonio News Story - KSAT San Antonio

for bribery??? What where they being bribed to do, clean offices?