12:00 pm Former EED Director faces 80 years in prison on fraud charges
By Ashley Rader
Former Elizabethton Electric Department Director Rick Ingram Sr. has been indicted by a federal grand jury of fraud against the Clarksville (Tenn.) Department of Electricity, the utility he went to work in after leaving the EED.
Photo by Brandon Hicks - Rick Ingram, former director of the Elizabethton Electric Department, has been indicted by a federal grand jury of fraud against the Clarksville (Tenn.) Department of Electricity.
Ingram, whose full name is Ricky Ricarda Ingram Sr., is currently in custody in a state prison in South Carolina where he is already serving a five-year sentence for breach of trust with fraudulent intent over $10,000. He began serving his sentence on Dec. 13, 2011.
If he is convicted on the new charges, he faces up to 80 years in prison and $1 million in fines for the 36 counts of wire and mail fraud he is facing. Two other men were indicted along with Ingram. Tommy L. Walton Sr. and Tommy L. Walton II also received indictments. These men ran companies that were alledgedly receiving fraudulently obtained funds from the Clarksville Electric Department totaling $188,000. Walton Sr. was the general manager of Intelligent Services, a private investigation company out of Greenville, S.C., and Walton II was owner of IntelliNet Consulting in Huntersville, N.C.
Ingram left the city of Elizabethton in October 2008 to go work for the Clarksville Electric Department. He had been hired by Elizabethton on Jan. 22, 2007 after the Elizabethton Electric System had been changed to the Elizabethton Electric Department. Ingram has worked in the electric industry since 1982 when he worked with Duke Energy in Greenville, S.C. He was fired from Clarksville in July 2009 after several audits questioned the contracts between Ingram and several companies.
The indictment said the three men worked together to defraud the Clarksville Department of Electricity using kickbacks and concealing material information.
“The purpose of the scheme to defraud was for (Ingram) to secretly use his official position to enrich himself by soliciting and accepting gifts and payments from (Walton Sr. or Walton II) in exchange for favorable official action, and for (Walton Sr. or Walton II) to enrich himself by secretly obtaining favorable official action for himself and his company through corrupt means,” the indictment reads.
There were multiple example listed in the indictment. One of these listed said Ingram had Walton Sr. conduct eight background checks for a total of $32,150 and hid from the Clarksville Electric Department and their board that Ingram was paid $16,000 from Walton Sr. Another instance listed in the indictment claimed that Ingram had the Clarksville Electric Department pay $156,140 for consulting services from IntelliNet while he received a payment of $51,500. Of this $11,500 was allegedly paid directly to Ingram and $40,000 was paid to one of his creditors.
An indictment means the grand jury has found sufficient evidence to bring the case to trial.
An audit in July 2009 investigated Ingram’s work with Walton and Intellinet. The audit found a contract Ingram signed without board approval, which violated the Clarksville city-code. The contract included a $172,000 payment to IntelliNet. The company is linked to the Community Communications Authority. The TVA had told Clarksville Department of Electricity to stop doing business with CCA.
The audit found proof of payments totaling $485,000 to CCA and to consultants that CCA brought into the work and to companies that were in some way tied to CCA. The audit could not find what that money had been spent on. The auditor did find evidence where Ingram instructed Clarksville electric staff to write requests for proposals for vendors after proposals had already been submitted. The audit also found that Ingram ordered the requests be backdated so it would look like they had been asked for. The auditor doubted that the requests were ever sent out.
Ingram requested that CCA come to Clarksvillle, stating he had done business with them while working in Elizabethton.
City Manager Fred Edens said that he recalls Ingram bringing CCA representatives to the city in an attempt to get them to do business with CCA. Edens said Ingram kept pushing to have the agency work with the city, but that he felt something was not right with the arrangement and would not give his recommendation to hire the agency.
“He was always really big on trying to get them (CCA) involved in the city,” Edens said. “I didn’t take the bait. I felt something wasn’t right about it. I didn’t feel comfortable with them and I never did allow them to do business in Elizabethton.”
Edens said that he suspects his decision to not accept CCA may have had something to do with Ingram’s decision to leave Elizabethton. After Ingram left the city, Edens said he was approached by federal agents who presented him with a photo lineup to identify some of the people involved with CCA.
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