LOS ANGELES – A Central California man who was hired to advise the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians has become the third person to plead guilty to participating in a kickback scheme that defrauded the Coachella Valley tribe
The bribery was related to projects involving the tribe’s Spotlight 29 Casino, which is located in Coachella, a city in Riverside County.
David Alan Heslop, 76, of Templeton, who was hired by the tribe to oversee some tribal business, plead guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit bribery.
Heslop admitted that he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to bribe Gary Edward Kovall, an attorney acting as general counsel for the tribe.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald will sentence Heslop on June 30. Heslop faces up to five years in federal prison.
Kovall, 67, of Ely, Minnesota, plead guilty last month to conspiracy to commit bribery.
A third defendant in the case – Paul Phillip Bardos, 58, a general contractor from Rancho Cucamonga – plead guilty last month to tax evasion.
According to information in a 20-page document filed with Heslop’s plea agreement, this is what happened:
- Kovall and Heslop formed companies, and Kovall convinced the tribe to award construction and consulting work to those companies.
- To disguise Kovall’s interest in those companies, Heslop paid Kovall’s share to Peggy Anne Shambaugh, who at the time was Kovall’s girlfriend (and is now his wife).
- Over of period of about 18 months that ended in mid-2008, the tribe paid these companies about $2.8 million.
- Heslop, in turn, paid Shambaugh approximately $300,000 to influence and reward Kovall.
- Bardos performed and subcontracted much of the work awarded by the tribe. He admitted to depositing income he earned into his personal checking account, concealing this money from his accountant, and not reporting it on his tax returns.
Kovall and Bardos both are scheduled to be sentenced in September and are both facing up to five years in prison.
Shambaugh, who was also indicted in this case, is being evaluated for pretrial diversion.
This case was investigated by the IRS and the FBI.