U. S. Indicts Texas Developer, Implicates 2 Ex-HUD Aides
A Texas real estate developer has been indicted by a grand jury investigating influence peddling at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, court papers disclosed Friday.
The indictment implicates two one-time aides to former Housing Secretary Samuel R. Pierce in a scheme to help the developer obtain federal grants under false pretenses.
The developer, Leonard E. Briscoe, 49, of Ft. Worth, was accused in the six-count indictment of mail and wire fraud and of filing false statements to obtain a $2.4-million Urban Development Action Grant in 1986 to build a shopping mall in Riviera Beach, Fla.
The court papers implicate Lance Wilson, once Pierce’s chief of staff and then a vice president of Paine Webber Inc., as an unnamed and unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme to help Briscoe falsely certify that he had obtained the required private financing to qualify for federal assistance.
Although Wilson’s name was not mentioned in the indictment, his role in the episode described in the charges was spelled out in a congressional report last fall.
The indictment names DuBois Gilliam, Pierce’s former deputy assistant HUD secretary, as an unindicted co-conspirator.
The indictment charges that Briscoe submitted a false letter stating that he had commitments from Paine Webber to underwrite the sale of taxable bonds to finance the private portion of the project.
The letter, signed by Wilson, were given to Gilliam, then deputy assistant HUD secretary. Gilliam has served an 18-month prison term for an unrelated HUD fraud conviction.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
