Opinion ID: 74730
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Major-Fraud Charges

Text: The ACOE eventually discovered that instead of using the ACOE’s progress 1 Trial testimony indicated that the ACOE essentially acquiesced in PZ’s practice of “recycling” the material from the site. The ACOE had a contracting officer on site who would have known that PZ had been recycling since the beginning of the contract, and who did nothing to cause PZ to change the practice. At trial, witnesses suggested that recycling was better for the area, both environmentally and economically, and noted that the news media had commented favorably on the practice of recycling the hurricane debris. 3 payments to PZ for the Three Lakes project, Nolan and his codefendant, James Byrd, were shifting some of the funds for their own personal use. As a result, the government charged Nolan with twenty-four counts of major fraud. The jury convicted Nolan of three of those counts of major fraud, all involving the delivery of checks. At trial, investigators testified that they had traced the money transferred by the three checks back to ACOE contract proceeds that were originally paid to PZ. Count Eleven involved a check for $150,000, dated March 4, 1993, that Nolan wrote to C.A. Killen, an accountant in Texas who performed no work on the Three Lakes project. Count Fifteen involved check for $100,000, dated April 5, 1993, also written to Killen. Killen eventually redirected to Nolan’s real estate attorney, Joshua Manaster, a substantial portion of the $250,000 he had received from Nolan. Manaster put the funds towards a down payment on Nolan’s $1.15 million house. Count Seventeen involved a check for $132,000, dated May 20, 1993, written from Killen to Manaster.