Another former LA water department executive agrees to plead guilty

Another former Los Angeles Department of Water and Power executive agreed to plead guilty to a criminal charge relating to a massive litigation scheme, the Department of Justice announced Monday.

Former DWP information security officer David F. Alexander, 54, agreed to plead guilty to one felony charge for lying to the FBI about a job offer he secretly agreed to accept in exchange for providing "guarantees" of additional contract money to a lawyer who agreed to plead guilty to a bribery charge, the DOJ said.

Alexander is the third person to agree to plead guilty to criminal charges relating to a scheme seemingly hatched by New York attorney and former special counsel to the city of Los Angeles, Paul O. Paradis.

"On July 22, 2019, the FBI executed search warrants at LADWP as part of its ongoing investigation into the department and the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office," a DOJ statement read Monday. "Two days later during a voluntary interview, Alexander lied to the FBI about his conversations and agreements with Paradis. On July 26, 2019, Alexander met again with the FBI and again lied, falsely stating that he had declined any employment opportunity...and that he had never provided any guarantees... to Paradis."

Paradis represented the city in a lawsuit seeking to blame PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP for the LADWP faulty billing system which allegedly overbilled thousands of ratepayers in 2013. However behind the scenes, Paradis not only directed lawyers representing plaintiffs in a separate suit seeking to hold the city, his client, responsible for the faulty billing system, he also secretly promised to pay an LADWP executive $1 million a year if he helped push a $30 million, no-bid contract for Paradis' company Aventador. Aventador was supposed to fix the faulty billing system before the collusive scheme was revealed.

Former LADWP general manager David H. Wright, the executive who lobbied DWP board members to approve the Aventador contract, agreed to plead guilty earlier this month to one count of bribery, for colluding with Paradis. Wright could face up to 10 years in prison, according to the DOJ.

In his plea agreement, Paradis also admitted to engaging in additional bribery schemes involving high level LADWP officials and a litigation scheme "with at least one senior member of the city attorney's office," according to a statement issued by the DOJ.

Paradis is expected to make his first court appearance Thursday.