Saturday, October 15, 2005

MUD Problems in Sienna & Missouri City, TX (Fort Bend County)--

Please look over these two articles and contact your MUD board if you are a customer of ECO resources. You may want to find out more. We also encourage you to contact the Office of the Attorney Generals Consumer Division (HOUSTON REGIONAL
(713) 223-5886 808 Travis, Suite 300, Houston, Texas 77002-1702) and the FBI at Houston@fbi.gov to get outside policing agencies involved. Right now it looks like it is being handled only internally:

From the Fort Bend Sun:

"Water company launches probe into embezzlement

By:SESHADRI KUMAR 10/10/2005

An alleged financial embezzlement scheme by an employee of ECO Resources in Sugar Land, the water and wastewater operation and maintenance company, has resulted in incorrect billing" to the tune of thousands of dollars and at least seven municipal utility districts in Fort Bend and Harris counties have been affected.

One of the victims in this case is believed to be Harris County MUD # 165, with an estimated billing error of $145,000, while in other cases the amount ranges from a couple of thousand dollars to $10,000 or more.
Lynn Humphries, attorney for Harris County MUD#165 says ECO Resources officials have themselves alerted the district to the potential problem and has promised total restitution of the amount with interest.
The company is conducting a forensic audit to determine the extent of financial irregularity that had occurred and at this stage, nothing more is known, Humphries says.

Maria S. Parker, attorney for the Blue Ridge West MUD in Missouri City says her district is said to have been improperly billed for about $9,200, according to preliminary estimates made by ECO Resources. The MUD district is waiting for ECO Resources to complete its audit and will then decide the course of action.

James Murdaugh, attorney for Harris County MUD#118 says his district's estimated incorrect billing is less than $2,000. Murdaugh also says that ECO Resources itself found out the problem and informed the MUD.
First Colony MUD # 9 in Missouri City is believed to have been incorrectly charged to the extent of about $10,000. John Wallace, attorney for the district, confirms that ECO Resources officials have met with him and the MUD board plans to launch its own audit of the bills it received from ECO Resources.

Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert, who is a consultant to ECO Resources, says that he is aware of the issue.
"I have assisted ECO Resources early on in explaining the position and the facts as they know them to the attorneys of various MUDs," Hebert says.
Based on his knowledge of what transpired and the feedback he got from the MUDs, Hebert says the company took appropriate steps to inform its clients and promised to restitute the money.
"It is a sad situation to go through, but I am pleased with the way it has been handled," Hebert says.

Jim Brown, regional vice president of ECO Resources for the Houston region, says he cannot comment much because an investigation is in progress.
"We have a very high code of ethics. We have taken the high road. We feel violated as our customers are. We moved quickly and talked to the districts and did everything we can. We had a very good response from the customers."

The whole issue came to light about four weeks ago.
As promised, ECO Reso-urces has already cut a check to the Harris County MUD#165 toward the initial estimated loss, pending a final settlement, Brown says.
Brown also says the matter has been brought to the attention of Fort Bend County District Attorney John Healey for potential criminal investigation. The employee allegedly involved in the case has been fired, Brown says.
Healey says ECO Resources officials had consulted him over a matter that is being investigated by the company itself and when they get all the information, it will be reviewed and forwarded to a suitable criminal investigation agency."


©Houston Community Newspapers Online 2005


This other article came in from the

FortBendNow> site (please read and contact outside consumer policing agencies on this)


"ECO Resources Discovers Employee Ran MUD Billing Scam
by Bob Dunn, Oct 12, 03:03 pm

Several local municipal utility districts have been bilked of thousands of dollars in a billing scam allegedly run by a former ECO Resources Inc. employee.

Sugar Land-based ECO Resources manages and operates MUDs. About a month ago, two company managers discovered what they believed was a billing scheme involving “less than 10” local MUDS, Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert said Wednesday.

The managers asked for Hebert’s advice in handling the situation. Hebert, who founded ECO Resources, was its chief executive officer for 13 years and still is under contract as a consultant. The company now is owned by Southwest Water Co.
“My recommendation was that they go immediately to the attorneys involved (at the MUDs), and then to the boards involved,” Hebert said.
Jim Brown, regional vice president for Southwest Water’s Houston Regional Services Group, was one of the managers who discovered the scheme. He said ECO Resources still is conducting an internal investigation and forensic audit in an attempt to determine the scope of the scam.

Neither Brown nor Hebert knew how much money was taken in total, since the audit still is ongoing. However, Hebert estimated it was at least $145,000 and will wind up being “probably in the low six figures.”
He said the employee believed to be involved in the scam was immediately fired, and “the loopholes the employee was using were closed.”

Fort Bend County District Attorney John Healey said company officials met with him, and are expected to provide him with the results of their internal investigation. “In all likelihood, we will make a referral” to a police agency to complete an investigation.
“At this point, it looks very obvious it was only an individual act,” Brown said, although nothing is being ruled out.
“It’s a terrible event,” Hebert said. “The employee was a very trusted manager. You’re just crushed.”
“We were as shocked as anyone,” said Brown.
Brown and Hebert said all MUDs that lost money will be fully reimbursed and paid interest on their losses.'

25 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Looks like many familiar faces here. I wonder how much was really taken over the years?

5:17 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

5:18 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You can bet it isn't as limited as the claims in the article. IMO this may have been going on for several years and is this individual the "fall guy/gal" for others? Hopefully other agencies will get involved with encouragement from consumers of their products.

6:51 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Isn't the chief county judge the former owner of ECO?

6:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does this seem right to you all? The former owner leading the investigation on this?

7:13 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

7:29 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why don't you all stop trying to stir up trouble. Everything is going to be fine. The company will take care of everything.

8:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ya right.

12:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

2:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hardly think alerting the public to the wrong doing that has been reported through the media "stirring up trouble". Consumers/public need to be kept informed about potential problems with corporations they do business with. To do otherwise would seem negligent now wouldn't it?

4:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

4:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Isn't that the same Hebert that you all had listed as receiving campaign contributions from the developers out here?

5:20 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Allen Owen is the mayor of Missouri City who ethics complaints were filed against for pushing the thousands of apartment units the developers want in this community after it was found out he was also getting campaign contributions from the same developers here. He was taking campaign contributions from many of the same crowd that is giving to Hebert's campaign, the chief county judge. This is the same individual leading the internal investigation of ECO (and the MUDs issue of this thread), his former company which he consults for now.--Does that description help?

8:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds like a rather complex cast of characters.

1:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Isn"t that the court the SLAPP case is being heard in too?

3:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The 240th state district court is a FB county court.

5:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

yes. it is the same court! Herbert over sees the same courts and judges that the case against the residents of Sienna Plantation is being played out.

Developer contributes to Mayor
Mayor gives everything the developer wants even though the public is clearly against the plans.

Developer contributes to the County Judge
Judges give the developer what they want even though what they are asking is unconstitutional.

is there a pattern here?

7:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds like the good old boys are working hard to take care of business. What are you all going to do?

3:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What every red blooded American does in a situation like this. . . . . put our collective heads back in the sand!

2:57 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's an update on the story if you're interested: Accused ECO Worker Quits Planning Board.

4:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for adding the direct link to it. Sometimes it is hard to make out in a cut/paste.

5:07 PM  
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POLLHOST POLL RESULTS:

POLLHOST POLL RESULTS:

 

Question: Do you trust Allen Owen, mayor of Missouri City, TX, to represent you rather than his Houston corporate backers?

 

Results:

 

3%  participating said yes  (n20)

 

91%  participating said no  (n573)

 

6%  participating responded not sure  (n39)

 

(N) sample =  632

 

Stay tuned as more surveys for coming elections are posted!

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