Hotmail
SamCorp president, lobbyist to stand trial
by Ramon Bracamontes, El Paso Times, Texas , El Paso Times
A pretrial hearing is set for Monday, and jury selection is set to begin Tuesday morning, records show.
Neither Sambrano or Guzman could be reached for comment. Guzman's lawyer, Joe Spencer, did not want to talk about the case.
"All I can say is that we will be there on Monday," Spencer said.
According to the indictment, the bribery charge stems from a construction contract that SamCorp received from the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District. The indictment alleges Sambrano and Guzman gave items of value to elected officials so "that bids of SamCorp would receive favorable consideration."
School district records show that SamCorp was contracted to build two elementary schools and a maintenance building.
"From in or about August 2000 up through and including on or about November 2004, defendant Guzman purchased and caused the purchase of items of value for and to the benefit of various public officials at PSJA-ISD,"
the indictment states.
Then, the indictment states, "Defendant Sambrano caused reimbursements to be made out of SamCorp accounts to Defendant Guzman for items of value purchased for and to the benefit of various public officials as PSJA-ISD."
The indictment does not mention which elected officials were allegedly bribed and what gifts were given to them. However, a separate indictment used to charge several school district trustees with fraud states that an El Paso company, which is not named, in 2003 and 2004 provided to the school district officials tickets and hotel rooms for San Antonio Spurs and Houston Astros games, the Oscar de la Hoya vs. "Sugar" Shane Mosley fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and the NCAA basketball tournament "Final Four" in San Antonio.
After Sambrano was indicted, SamCorp began defaulting on several construction jobs in El Paso, including the contract to build a new bookstore at the University of Texas at El Paso. The company has since closed its offices and is mired in bankruptcy proceedings.
Sambrano became president of SamCorp in 1993, taking over the day-to-day operations from his father. According to past reports, SamCorp had annual revenues of around $50 million and had construction projects with several governments in El Paso.
Among some of its notable El Paso projects: the $23 million renovation and expansion of the El Paso convention center; construction of the $7.7 million UTEP Academic Services Building; construction of the $13.7 million state office building and parking garage Downtown; and construction of several area schools, including the recently completed Aoy Elementary School in South El Paso.
In 2006, Sambrano was named the Hispanic Business Man of the Year for the United States Hispanic Chambers Region 3.
Guzman is a longtime El Paso businessman who used to own or was part owner of a beer distributorship and the Red Bull energy drink distributorship. He is also credited with coordinating some of the major special events in this city, such as the Tejanos Legends concert at the Plaza Theatre.
Guzman resigned from the El Paso Electric Co. board of directors shortly after being indicted.
Ramon Bracamontes may be reached at rbracamontes@elpasotimes.com; 546-6142.
To see more of the El Paso Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.elpasotimes.com. Copyright (c) 2009, El Paso Times, Texas Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
| Copyright 2009 El Paso Times (El Paso, TX) | |
|
Terms & Conditions Privacy
Copyright © 2009 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. |
Add a comment
advertisement
