Federal prosecutors in Boston on Monday said William Tidwell
accepted over $90,000 in benefits and a $50,000 property loan
from a high net-worth inmate while working as a correctional
counselor at the Federal Medical Center Devens in Ayer,
Massachusetts.
Court papers only identified the former inmate as "Individual
1." A person familiar with the matter said he was Rajaratnam,
who was sentenced in 2011 to 11 years in prison and was released
early in 2019.
Prosecutors had accused Rajaratnam, the founder of the New
York-based hedge fund Galleon Group, of making as much as $63.8
million in illicit profit from 2003 to 2009 trading on stocks
including eBay, Goldman Sachs and Google.
Rajaratnam was not charged in Monday's case against Tidwell.
"This is the first we're learning of the charges against Mr.
Tidwell," said Samidh Guha, Rajaratnam's lawyer. "We of course
would cooperate appropriately with the government if and when
they reach out to us."
Tidwell as part of a plea deal has agreed to plead guilty to
bribery in violation of official duties, making false statements
to a bank and identity theft. His lawyer, Brad Bailey, declined
to comment.
Starting in 2018, Tidwell began receiving undisclosed benefits
from Rajaratnam and a close friend and business associate of
Rajaratnam, according to charging papers and the person familiar
with the matter.
Those benefits included $25,000 to help pay off loans for a
family member and more than $65,000 in fees and other benefits
stemming from an agreement to help manage certain properties,
including one Tidwell lived at, prosecutors said.
During this time, Tidwell showed favoritism to the wealthy
inmate by delaying his transfer from a coveted unit within the
prison where inmates had more privacy and allowing him to set up
legal calls more easily than other inmates, prosecutors said.
Later, after Rajaratnam was released from prison, Tidwell in
2020 received a $50,000 loan from the onetime inmate's friend to
buy a house. Prosecutors said he lied on a bank loan application
about the source of that money.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by David Bario and
Chris Reese)
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