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MIAMI — A former top administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was arrested on Tuesday in a major federal corruption investigation that found that the official took bribes from the president of a company that secured $1.8 billion in federal contracts to repair Puerto Rico’s shredded electrical grid after Hurricane Maria.
Federal authorities arrested Ahsha Tribble, FEMA’s former deputy administrator for the region that includes Puerto Rico, and Donald Keith Ellison, the former president of Cobra Acquisitions with whom Ms. Tribble had a “close personal relationship,” Rosa Emilia Rodríguez Vélez, the United States attorney for Puerto Rico, announced. They were accused of conspiring to defraud the federal government, among other charges.
A second FEMA employee, Jovanda R. Patterson, who worked as a deputy chief of staff in Puerto Rico and was later hired by Cobra, was also arrested, Ms. Rodríguez Vélez said.
President Trump has repeatedly cast Puerto Rico’s leaders as incompetent and corrupt. Tuesday’s arrests, however, did not involve any Puerto Ricans, but rather a longtime federal employee working on the island under the Trump administration.
Ms. Tribble, who holds a doctorate in meteorology, was assigned to Puerto Rico for a year, where she was the agency’s energy sector lead. She was also a Homeland Security adviser during the Obama administration.
According to prosecutors, Mr. Ellison lavished Ms. Tribble with gifts in exchange for her influence inside FEMA that was used to give Cobra an advantage. The “stream of benefits” ranged from a helicopter ride over Puerto Rico to the securing of an apartment in New York, the authorities said.
They also included personal security services; the use of one of Mr. Ellison’s credit cards; airplane tickets, including one first-class ticket from San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, to New York; and hotel stays in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C. Mr. Ellison and Ms. Tribble traveled together and stayed in the same room, Ms. Rodríguez Vélez said. One of their itineraries mentioned in the indictment referred to travel involving “you,” “me” and “us.”
The two defendants tried to conceal the gifts by using Mr. Ellison’s credit card. Ms. Tribble communicated with Mr. Ellison using her personal email and cellphones, including a disposable cellphone, according to the indictment.
In return for the gifts, Ms. Tribble is accused of performing official acts to advance Cobra’s interests. For example, according to the indictment, in February 2018, after the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority reported an explosion at a substation in Monacillo, P.R., that left several municipalities without power, Ms. Tribble insisted that the public utility hire Cobra to make repairs or risk not getting reimbursed by FEMA — even though leaders of the utility insisted they could do the same work at a far lower cost.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive...try=US&blockId=home-featured&imp_id=628385382
“They took advantage of one of the most vulnerable moments in the history of Puerto Rico to enrich themselves,” Ms. Rodríguez Vélez said.
Ms. Patterson, who was a friend of Ms. Tribble’s, resigned from FEMA in July 2018 to take a job with Cobra, which she negotiated with Ms. Tribble’s help while she was taking part in evaluating Cobra as a vendor for FEMA, the indictment says.
Ms. Tribble was arrested in Florida, Mr. Ellison in Oklahoma and Ms. Patterson in California, prosecutors said.
Investigators in the latest case found no evidence that any staff member at the power authority, commonly known as PREPA, was involved in the scheme, prosecutors said.
In a statement, José Ortiz Vázquez, the chief executive of the Puerto Rico Electrical Power Authority, said the company canceled its contract with Cobra in March, when it learned of possible irregularities. By then, $1.1 billion had been disbursed.
Former FEMA Official Accused of Taking Bribes in Hurricane Maria Recovery (Published 2019)
Federal authorities arrested a former top FEMA official and the ex-president of a company that secured $1.8 billion in contracts to repair Puerto Rico’s power grid.
MIAMI — A former top administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was arrested on Tuesday in a major federal corruption investigation that found that the official took bribes from the president of a company that secured $1.8 billion in federal contracts to repair Puerto Rico’s shredded electrical grid after Hurricane Maria.
Federal authorities arrested Ahsha Tribble, FEMA’s former deputy administrator for the region that includes Puerto Rico, and Donald Keith Ellison, the former president of Cobra Acquisitions with whom Ms. Tribble had a “close personal relationship,” Rosa Emilia Rodríguez Vélez, the United States attorney for Puerto Rico, announced. They were accused of conspiring to defraud the federal government, among other charges.
A second FEMA employee, Jovanda R. Patterson, who worked as a deputy chief of staff in Puerto Rico and was later hired by Cobra, was also arrested, Ms. Rodríguez Vélez said.
President Trump has repeatedly cast Puerto Rico’s leaders as incompetent and corrupt. Tuesday’s arrests, however, did not involve any Puerto Ricans, but rather a longtime federal employee working on the island under the Trump administration.
Ms. Tribble, who holds a doctorate in meteorology, was assigned to Puerto Rico for a year, where she was the agency’s energy sector lead. She was also a Homeland Security adviser during the Obama administration.
According to prosecutors, Mr. Ellison lavished Ms. Tribble with gifts in exchange for her influence inside FEMA that was used to give Cobra an advantage. The “stream of benefits” ranged from a helicopter ride over Puerto Rico to the securing of an apartment in New York, the authorities said.
They also included personal security services; the use of one of Mr. Ellison’s credit cards; airplane tickets, including one first-class ticket from San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital, to New York; and hotel stays in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C. Mr. Ellison and Ms. Tribble traveled together and stayed in the same room, Ms. Rodríguez Vélez said. One of their itineraries mentioned in the indictment referred to travel involving “you,” “me” and “us.”
The two defendants tried to conceal the gifts by using Mr. Ellison’s credit card. Ms. Tribble communicated with Mr. Ellison using her personal email and cellphones, including a disposable cellphone, according to the indictment.
In return for the gifts, Ms. Tribble is accused of performing official acts to advance Cobra’s interests. For example, according to the indictment, in February 2018, after the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority reported an explosion at a substation in Monacillo, P.R., that left several municipalities without power, Ms. Tribble insisted that the public utility hire Cobra to make repairs or risk not getting reimbursed by FEMA — even though leaders of the utility insisted they could do the same work at a far lower cost.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive...try=US&blockId=home-featured&imp_id=628385382
“They took advantage of one of the most vulnerable moments in the history of Puerto Rico to enrich themselves,” Ms. Rodríguez Vélez said.
Ms. Patterson, who was a friend of Ms. Tribble’s, resigned from FEMA in July 2018 to take a job with Cobra, which she negotiated with Ms. Tribble’s help while she was taking part in evaluating Cobra as a vendor for FEMA, the indictment says.
Ms. Tribble was arrested in Florida, Mr. Ellison in Oklahoma and Ms. Patterson in California, prosecutors said.
Investigators in the latest case found no evidence that any staff member at the power authority, commonly known as PREPA, was involved in the scheme, prosecutors said.
In a statement, José Ortiz Vázquez, the chief executive of the Puerto Rico Electrical Power Authority, said the company canceled its contract with Cobra in March, when it learned of possible irregularities. By then, $1.1 billion had been disbursed.
