HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) - Ocean Springs businessman Scott Walker pleaded guilty Thursday to fraud and conspiracy charges in two separate cases involving the state Department of Marine Resources.
The change of plea hearing was held Thursday morning in U.S. District Court in Hattiesburg before Judge Keith Starrett.
Walker, 34, entered the pleas under an agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office. He was charged with a total of 10 counts in the two cases. As part of a plea agreement, the other eight charges will be dropped, prosecutors said.
The (Biloxi) Sun Herald reports (https://bit.ly/1gMuEp8) Walker faces up to 10 years in prison for fraud and up to five years for conspiracy. A sentencing date is pending.
Walker had originally planned to fight the charges in both cases and was scheduled for trial in March.
In one case, Walker is charged along with his father, former Mississippi Department of Marine Resources Executive Director Bill Walker. Bill Walker announced his intent Wednesday to plead guilty to the conspiracy charge. His plea hearing is set for March 10, also in Hattiesburg. Two other defendants in the case, former DMR Chief of Staff Joe Ziegler and former DMR manager Tina Shumate, maintain their innocence and are scheduled for trial June 2.
The indictment outlines one scheme the Walkers allegedly entered with Shumate to enrich themselves with DMR funds through the sale of property in which they had an interest. In a second scheme, the Walkers and Ziegler allegedly conspired to commit, and committed, mail fraud against the government when they funneled money intended for the state into a private foundation Bill Walker controlled.
In the second case, Scott Walker and co-defendant Michael Janus admit Walker never earned a $180,000 “finder’s fee” Maxwell & Walker Consulting Group was paid in 2011 for ostensibly landing a grant for the city of D’Iberville. Janus, who pleaded guilty Feb. 10 to the fraud charge and was set to testify against Walker, was serving as D’Iberville’s city manager when he arranged the fee for Walker.
Prosecutors say they were prepared to prove that $90,000 of the money was deposited into the bank account of JaWa Investments, a company Walker and Janus co-own. They used $40,000, the government alleges, to pay off a $40,000 loan for an interest in The Columns bar in downtown Biloxi.
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