Bilda and Sullivan sentenced to prison in CMEEC theft case. How long will they be behind bars?
A U.S. District judge in New Haven on Thursday sentenced Norwich’s former board representative to a regional energy cooperative to six months in prison for his role in the misuse of rate-payer dollars that were used to fund lavish outings.
John Bilda, 59, former manager for Norwich Public Utilities and a member of the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative's board of directors, was ordered to report to prison on July 12. Judge Jeffrey Meyer also imposed three years of supervised release onto Bilda’s sentence.
Bilda was the third individual sentenced to a period of incarceration after a jury in December 2021 found him, along with former CMEEC Chief Executive Officer Drew Rankin and James Sullivan, former CMEEC board chairman, each guilty of one count of theft concerning a program receiving federal funds.
Sullivan, 56, was sentenced to six months in prison by Meyer on Wednesday and the 62-year-old Rankin was given a one-year prison term. Like Bilda, both Sullivan and Rankin also had a three-year period of supervised release tacked onto their prison terms, set to start in July.
The men's trial began three years after the defendants were indicted by a grand jury in November 2018 on counts of conspiracy and federal fund theft. The theft counts related to trips to the Kentucky Derby and a swanky West Virginia golf resort.
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All three men were found not guilty on conspiracy and theft counts stemming from a 2014 trip to the Derby. Former Groton utilities commissioner and former CMEEC board member Edward DeMuzzio and former CMEEC Chief Financial Officer Edward Pryor were also indicted but were acquitted on all charges.
CMEC is a cooperative public corporation that permits municipal electric utilities in Connecticut to join together to furnish electric power in the municipalities’ areas of operation.
CMEEC’s coverage area includes all or parts of Norwich, Groton, Norwalk, Jewett City, Bozrah, Gilman, Lebanon, Franklin, Montville and Salem. The public power utility, which receives federal monetary benefits, provides electricity to roughly 70,000 residential, commercial/industrial and small business customers located across the state.
The charges, the trial and the costs to rate-payers
During the trial, prosecutors argued many of the trip-related expenses were charged to a CMEEC “margin account,” a revenue account held in trust for member towns, which include Norwich and Groton, and meant to be returned to member utility entities.
The government argued the defendants sought to conceal the alleged fund theft by mischaracterizing the trip expenses; failing to disclose the trips to CMEEC senior-level employees; encouraging trip-goers to not discuss the excursions; and making misleading statements to the media when the trips came to light.
Costs for the trips, which included board members, their family members and friends, were pegged at more than $800,000 – including private chartered air travel, first-class hotels, meals and sporting event tickets - and unrelated to any CMEEC business, the jury found.
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Between 2010 and 2015, CMEEC received more than $9 million dollars from the U.S. Department of Energy and CMEEC member towns also received funds from federal grants.
During the 2015 derby trip – with an average guest cost of roughly $9,000 – Bilda brought along his wife, his parents and two friends. Sullivan brought his son, brother, sister-in-law, a bartender acquaintance– and her friend – to that outing.
In August 2015, Bilda, Rankin and Sullivan took a “scouting trip”– on CMEEC’s dime – to West Virginia's Greenbrier golf resort with Rankin and Bilda returning there months later for a larger event. The golf trips are estimated to have cost CMEEC approximately $121,000.
Restitution in the matter will be determined after further court proceedings, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
John Penney can be reached at jpenney@norwichbulletin.com or at (860) 857-6965.
This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Bilda and Sullivan get 6-month prison terms in CMEEC theft case
