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Ex-state prison official sentenced to prison

While director of a board that oversaw the state's private prison contracts, he admits mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

By JENNIFER LIBERTO
Published April 21, 2006

TALLAHASSEE - A former Florida prison official was sentenced Thursday to 33 months in federal prison after admitting he stole $225,000 in state money to help buy houses for him and his girlfriend.

Alan Brown Duffee, the former executive director of a defunct board that oversaw Florida's private prison contracts, admitted to one count each of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.

A federal judge sentenced Duffee, 40, to nearly three years in prison and three years of probation afterward.

Duffee's attorney Stephen Dobson said Duffee was prepared for the sentence. "Mr. Duffee is looking forward to getting this behind him and serving his sentence, and getting on with his life," Dobson said.

A plea agreement filed in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee shows Duffee admitted moving money in 2003 from a bank account for the Florida Correctional Privatization Commission to another bank account to which only he had access.

About $124,000 from the first two transfers - $50,000 on May 6 and $100,000 on May 29 - helped with the closing costs on homes for him and for his girlfriend, court documents show. It's unclear what became of another $74,972 he transferred in September and October of 2003.

The money came from the commission's building maintenance reimbursement fund. At the time of Duffee's indictment in September, federal officials seized his home, car and bank accounts.

Shortly after leaving the commission in 2004, Duffee purchased a multicity lobbying firm, the Windsor Group, and had a contract to buy Clyde's and Costello's, a bar one block from the state Capitol that has long been a favorite of political insiders. Duffee didn't follow through on either deal.

Duffee served as executive director of the privatization commission, a governor-appointed panel that oversaw the state's five privately run prisons. In May 2004, the Legislature abolished the commission amid complaints from vendors about favoritism and a St. Petersburg Times report that Duffee had hired a former state prison official as a consultant in violation of state law.

[Last modified April 21, 2006, 01:41:14]