A former audio-visual technician for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was sentenced Tuesday to five years in state prison for embezzling more than $4 million in public funds.
Thatcus Richard, 65, was also ordered by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Dabney to pay $4.4 million in restitution.
Richard pleaded no contest on March 2 to nine felony counts each of embezzlement by a public officer, public officer crime and conflict of interest, according to Deputy District Attorney Susan Ser. There was no agreement on what kind of sentence he could face.
Between July 1996 and March 2014, Richard — who was in charge of managing video and audio jobs for the utility — enlisted friends to establish audio-visual companies and then helped award LADWP contracts to them, according to the District Attorney’s Office. In return, the companies would subcontract the work to a company owned by the defendant called Top Line Communications.
He was arrested by the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation in June 2015.
As a result of the case, the LADWP began reviewing all of the contracts initiated by its small business units over a five-year period and bolstered training for contract managers. For the first time, the utility also established a vendor-authentication unit to verify the legitimacy of companies with which it does business.
