A trial date has been scheduled for a man implicated in a far-reaching public corruption and fraud scheme out of western Hidalgo County.
Mariano Garcia, 49, of Mission, will tentatively head to trial on Feb. 27 on one count of federal programs theft.
The announcement came during a brief status conference Thursday in McAllen federal court.
Garcia — a civil engineer who founded M Garcia Engineering in 2007 — is allegedly one of several key players in a massive fraud scheme that targeted numerous local government entities in western Hidalgo County.
According to federal prosecutors, the conspiracy involved bribes being paid to elected officials in exchange for their influence and favorable votes in approving energy savings contracts with an Indiana-based firm called Performance Services Inc., or PSI.
The conspirators allegedly targeted the Mission City Council, the La Joya Independent School District, the Agua Special Utility District and others.
In Garcia’s case, he is charged with participating in a scheme to defraud Agua SUD out of millions of dollars.
Federal prosecutors allege Garcia paid nearly a quarter of a million dollars to former Peñitas chief of staff, Andres Morales.
“(Garcia) gave approximately $249,839.13 to Andres Morales, through RGV Redlight, as instructed by the Agua SUD General Manager intending to influence and reward said General Manager for his official support and recommendation for Agua SUD to award” the energy savings contract to M Garcia Engineering, according to the indictment.
In March 2022, Agua SUD filed a 24-page civil lawsuit against Garcia and his company alleging he had bilked the utility district out of millions of dollars.
Garcia served as an intermediary between Agua SUD and PSI, which had approached the utility district sometime between 2016 and 2017 with an opportunity to save money by upgrading electrical and other infrastructure.
The plan involved installing LED light fixtures and solar paneling, and upgrading customers to “smart” water meters, among other things.
PSI and Garcia claimed the upgrades would come at no cost to Agua SUD thanks to a state law that incentivizes cost-savings projects.
But instead, Agua SUD took on some $12 million in debt on the project — paying $11.4 million to PSI and more than $346,000 to Garcia over the course of two years.
Last January, two other men connected to the conspiracy-at-large pleaded guilty to the allegations against them.
Morales, the man Garcia is accused of paying off, admitted to accepting more than $1.1 million in kickbacks and bribes as part of the scheme.
Morales also admitted to “direct(ing) the distribution of bribe and kickback payments to co-conspirators serving as public officials” with the city of Mission, Agua SUD, and the Mission and La Joya school districts, according to the criminal complaint against him.
The second man, Armin Garza, pleaded guilty on Jan. 6, 2022. He admitted to selling his votes as a La Joya school board trustee in exchange for bribes and kickbacks to unnamed co-conspirators.
He also used his position to push for promotions for several district employees in exchange for their support of the fraudulent energy services project.
Garza pleaded guilty just one day after the federal charges against him were unsealed.
In total, about a dozen west county public officials have been implicated in the conspiracy.
Prosecutors said Thursday they expect to take approximately two days to present their case-in-chief against Garcia.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on Feb. 27.
