Performance Services Inc., an Indiana-based company that has found itself at the center of a large-scale public corruption scandal in western Hidalgo County, has filed a civil lawsuit against one of its contractors.
Known as PSI, the company — which designs energy-efficient buildings throughout the country — sued Antonio Gonzalez III in December. PSI alleges that the Weslaco businessman has damaged its good name by using the company to perpetrate a fraud on government entities throughout Hidalgo County.
The business claims Gonzalez and his company, Harmony Business Consulting, have so tarnished its reputation that it has lost work and has had to defend itself in lawsuits of its own.
The lawsuit claims nine causes of action, including breach of contract, fraud, tortious interference, negligence and vicarious liability.
Performance Services first began working with Gonzalez in June 2018, according to a Dec. 5, 2022, copy of its first amended complaint.
The company wanted Gonzalez to be its local eyes on the ground — to “introduce PSI to decision makers at the agreed-upon prospective customers,” attend public meetings and present PSI’s energy services to local officials.
Instead, Gonzalez bribed those officials and others to guarantee the “decision makers” would hire PSI to implement energy- and cost-saving improvements. That included things such as integrating solar power into buildings, installing lower-cost LED lighting and more.
PSI touts its approach as a “budget-neutral solution” that involves no up-front costs — one that ultimately pays for itself once the energy savings are realized.
“(I)f the indicated energy savings are not achieved in practice, Performance Services will cut you a check to their equivalent value,” reads a statement on PSI’s website.
But when it came to offering its wares in the Rio Grande Valley, PSI claims the people it trusted as its local operatives instead took actions that were against the law, all without the company’s knowledge.
“Until Gonzalez’s plea of guilty, PSI was unaware of Harmony and Gonzalez’s breach of the agreement,” the lawsuit stated.
Among those targeted by the scheme were the city of Mission, the La Joya Independent School District and the Agua Special Utility District.
Mission and Agua SUD have since filed lawsuits against Performance Services.
In the case of Mission, the city seeks to recoup the more than $17 million it spent in hiring PSI.
Agua SUD, meanwhile, claims it took on $12 million in debt after it was hoodwinked into the deal.
Approximately a dozen people have been implicated in the conspiracy, with federal prosecutors unveiling multiple charges against public officials and others throughout 2022.
Gonzalez was among those swept up in the investigation.
On April 14, 2022, he and another man, Chirag Patel, pleaded guilty to the accusations.
Gonzalez admitted to paying $30,000 in bribes to a Mission school board trustee between January and March 2018 in exchange for that person’s favorable votes.
The bribes were funneled through two intermediaries, identified in court documents only as Person B and Person C. A Performance Services employee referred to as “Person A” helped facilitate the bribes, court documents indicate.
In its lawsuit, PSI cited Gonzalez’s guilty plea to bolster its claims against the man, alleging that Gonzalez illegally sweetened the pot in order to keep himself rolling in work.
“Gonzalez admitted that he… made payments to individuals to secure contracts or assure future contracts would be given, all in the hopes of obtaining subsequent consulting business from PSI,” the lawsuit reads, in part.
The company further claims that it “has experienced a backlash of pending and current contracts,” as a result of the continuing criminal investigation and the flurry of federal charges and guilty pleas that have resulted thus far.
“These actions have had a chilling effect on PSI’s business ability to obtain and maintain contracts with the entities described above,” the lawsuit stated.
PSI is seeking for Gonzalez and his company to reimburse “all compensation paid” by PSI, though the lawsuit does not list a figure.
Gonzalez is scheduled to be sentenced in June.
