Contractors guilty in federal fraud scheme

The men are convicted of defrauding a program designed to help minority-owned companies.

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 30, 2001

TAMPA -- Howard L. Glover was a certified minority contractor who won a $298,000 contract to haul material for an Interstate 4 project in Tampa.

It was all a front, a federal jury decided Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors said Glover took kickbacks from white contractors who actually did the work in a scheme to defraud a program designed to help minority-owned companies.

After more than two days of deliberations, a jury on Wednesday convicted Glover and two white contractors of defrauding the government through Florida's Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program.

Glover, 52, who is black, and the two white contractors, Randy W. Blankenship, 32, and his sister, Tammy J. Blankenship, 37, looked on impassively as U.S. District Judge Richard A. Lazzara read the lengthy verdict.

Lazzara allowed the three to remain free on $50,000 bail and set sentencing for Nov. 16. They declined to comment afterward.

"We strongly disagree with the jury's verdict," said Ron Cacciatore, attorney for the Blankenships in the three-week trial. "And we hope the verdict will be reversed on appeal."

Glover, who operated H.J. Trucking in Mulberry, was convicted of 13 separate charges, including conspiracy, mail fraud and writing false documents, each of which is punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Jurors found him not guilty of three false document charges.

Jurors convicted the Blankenships and their Land O'Lakes company of 31 charges each, including conspiracy, money laundering, mail fraud and writing false documents. The laundering charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years and a $500,000 fine.

The Blankenships also were found not guilty of three false document charges.

When he won the contract in 1997, Glover had no office, no business phone, no employees and one dump truck.

Prosecutors said Glover was paid kickbacks of $500 a month by the white contractors to haul lime rock and dirt for him, though the work was earmarked for his minority company.

But Glover soon began complaining that he was being cheated. He called television stations and told Hillsborough's minority business manager about his troubles. He even cornered Gov. Jeb Bush at a town hall meeting.

Indeed, the investigation into Glover began when he reported to a Department of Transportation compliance officer in Tampa that his partners weren't paying him what they promised.

A third white contractor, John Miller, 39, vice president of J.D. Miller & Sons Trucking in Thonotosassa, was charged in the scheme but had earlier pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors.

Jurors also ordered the Blankenships' company to forfeit $268,878.

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