Two siblings — who are related to the former Mission mayor — were implicated in a public corruption case involving the Mission school district and an energy savings company.
An updated federal indictment implicates Mission real estate agent Veronica O’Caña in a bribery scheme that has already ensnared her brother, Jorge O’Caña, with criminal charges.
Federal prosecutors filed the superseding indictment Monday.
The first indictment, a single count that was unsealed in June, alleged Jorge tampered with a witness in a bribery scheme that involved a contract between Indiana-based Performances Services, Inc. and Mission CISD.
The new indictment unveils two more charges against him: bribery and money laundering.
Monday’s new indictment also reveals three counts against a person whose name was redacted. That person allegedly conspired with Jorge to launder money.
They are both charged individually with money laundering and witness tampering.
Though the second defendant’s name is redacted from the indictment’s heading, as well as the subheadings of the individual charges, Veronica O’Caña’s name is shown as a defendant in a portion of the document in which prosecutors state their intention to seize any assets that were criminally obtained.
“The property subject to forfeiture as to Defendant Veronica O’Caña includes… at least $24,000.00 in United States currency,” reads the Notice of Forfeiture section of the superseding indictment.
Jorge and Veronica O’Caña are the nephew and niece, respectively, of former Mission Mayor Armando “Doc” O’Caña, who lost his bid for re-election in June.
The superseding indictment says that bribes were paid to Veronica. It also says that the unnamed second defendant — which appears to be Veronica — tried to intimidate a witness into lying about the origin of the payments.
This defendant tried to “obstruct, influence, and impede” a federal grand jury… “by attempting to influence Antonio Gonzalez, III to state that bribe payments made to Veronica O’Caña were for real estate or interior design consulting,” count 5 states, in part.
The witness tampering allegedly occurred on April 5.
That date lines up with the separate witness tampering charge outlined against Jorge in count 1, which alleges that he similarly intimidated Gonzalez sometime between April 1 and April 5.
Jorge allegedly tipped Gonzalez and Veronica off to the FBI investigation.
“Defendant Jorge O’Caña… inform(ed) Antonio Gonzalez, III and Veronica O’Caña of evidence obtained by law enforcement during the course of a bribery investigation into contracts awarded to Performance Services, Inc,” reads count 1 of the superseding indictment, in part.
Jorge O’Caña attempted “to influence” Gonzalez to not cooperate with law enforcement regarding said investigation” and told Gonzalez that he “intended to lie to law enforcement regarding the payments he received,” count 1 further states.
Jorge O’Caña and his co-conspirator allegedly tried to silence Gonzalez more than four years after the bribery scheme took place.
According to the government, Jorge and his accomplice bribed a Mission CISD school board trustee sometime between Jan. 18 and March 5, 2018.
The bribes were meant to maneuver the school board into approving a contract with Performance Services, Inc., which — along with a local company called M Garcia Engineering — has been implicated in conducting numerous fraudulent contracts with public entities across western Hidalgo County.
Performance Services promised local government entities that it could help them save money on their utility budgets by upgrading infrastructure such as water meters and electrical systems.
The Agua Special Utility District — which provides water and wastewater service to Peñitas, Palmview, La Joya, Sullivan City and surrounding communities — was one of the entities that fell for the scheme.
Sometime around 2017, the Agua SUD board of directors approved energy savings and other related contracts with Performance Services and M Garcia Engineering.
The improvements were supposed to come at no cost to the utility, but instead, indebted Agua SUD to the tune of $12 million.
Agua SUD eventually sued the companies to try to recoup its losses.
Along with Agua SUD and Mission CISD, the Mission City Council and La Joya ISD were also targeted by the conspirators, with M Garcia Engineering’s principal, Mariano Garcia, allegedly facilitating bribes amongst the entities.
Garcia is facing his own federal theft charges in relation to the wide-reaching public corruption scheme.
Meanwhile, though the arrest of Jorge O’Caña’s co-conspirator has yet to be announced, Jorge is slated to appear in court on Dec. 9, when he will be arraigned on the additional charges.
Calls made to a mobile number listed as belonging to Veronica O’Caña went unanswered Tuesday.
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