Ex-HCC trustee gets 70 months in bribery case
Oliver accepted over a quarter-million dollars in bribes in exchange for influence on contracts
Former Houston Community College trustee Christopher Oliver is sentenced to nearly six years in prison after a judge said he accepted more than a quartermillion dollars in bribes.
A former Houston Community College trustee was sentenced Monday to nearly six years in prison after a judge said he accepted more than a quarter-million dollars in bribes in exchange for his influence over college contract work.
U.S. District Judge Vanessa D. Gilmore asked Christopher Oliver during the proceeding if his conduct was “standard procedure” for HCC trustees and if the college was a “cesspool.”
“I don’t know about standard procedure … but in my particular case, the line is definitely blurred,” he said, as two current trustees watched in the courtroom. “You don’t come from wealth. You’re in an elected position. Things are thrown at you.”
Oliver, 54, represented swaths of southwest Houston for the college system for more than 20 years. He pleaded guilty in May 2017 to taking envelopes stuffed with cash and Visa gift cards — about $12,000 — from former HCC contractor Karun Sreerama, who was Mayor Sylvester Turner’s public works director when Oliver’s case was unsealed.
But the judge described deeper corruption.
Between 2009 and 2016, she said, Oliver received 69 bribe payments totaling $225,259 from at least four people seeking HCC contracts.
The $12,000 he accepted from Sreerama in 2015 and 2016 was provided to Sreerama by the FBI, the judge said, and Oliver will be required to repay that sum. After his 70 months in prison, he will serve one year of supervised release.
Red flags about Oliver’s conduct were raised with HCC going back to at least 2011, when attorney Larry Veselka told the HCC board about the findings of a months-long internal investigation into multiple college trustees. He found that Oliver’s voting on a contract connected to a company from which he accepted payments prompted questions.
“Further inquiry could be justified to confirm that there was no
quid-pro-quo understanding or that the arrangement or understanding did not constitute a prohibited gift to a public servant,” he wrote.
A Houston Chronicle review of trustee minutes, depositions and lawsuits found that HCC trustees did not censure Oliver formally until after his guilty plea last year, despite Veselka’s findings and other allegations against him over the years.
On Monday, Gilmore said Oliver served in his position for “too long” as his integrity eroded.
Oliver agreed and said he should not have sought re-election in 2011. “I probably should have called it a career.”
He and his attorney declined to comment as they left the courtroom after the sentencing. Oliver will have to turn himself in to begin serving his prison term.
Fallout from the plea at HCC began almost immediately after the FBI announced Oliver’s conviction in July. The acting U.S. attorney agreed to dismiss an extortion charge for his guilty plea on the bribery indictment.
Oliver was stripped of his title as the board’s vice chairman and stopped attending board meetings. Oliver’s seat was up for election in November, and candidates pledged to restore trust. Sreerama stepped down from his position at the city of Houston in late July.
HCC has spent at least $175,000 on an investigation into procurement in the wake of Oliver’s plea. The college expects to conclude an examination of past years’ procurement in March, HCC spokeswoman Linda Toyota told the Houston Chronicle.
Separately, trustee Dave Wilson retained consultant Wayne Dolcefino’s firm to investigate HCC’s procurement, facilities, employment and related financial matters.
HCC’s accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, has begun its own review. The agency last month asked HCC for more information on board governance in light of the two investigations, a letter obtained by the Chronicle shows.
It asked HCC to prepare a report explaining its compliance with an accreditation standard that requires board members to act collectively without control by a minority of trustees.
Chancellor Cesar Maldonado wrote in an email to trustees, also obtained by the Chronicle, that the college’s response will be reviewed by the accreditor “for further action if necessary, including monitoring, sanction or the appointment of a Special Committee to review the institution.”
HCC said that it has put in place additional procedures to detect violations in the future, including requiring HCC vendors who obtain contracts with the college to provide updated conflict of interest disclosures every year.
An HCC cabinet signed off on changes to vendor relations in December.
“I am disappointed about what the former trustee has done, but actions have consequences, and I believe justice has been served,” board Chair Eva Loredo said in a written statement provided by HCC. “Our task now is to retain the public trust … Our goal is to put in place the strongest anticorruption measures possible. We are committed to ensuring that the future is one that is worthy of our students and the community we serve.”
Maldonado said HCC would continue to advocate for “new ideas and practices” to protect the university, though he called current college processes “among the most stringent and comprehensive of any college in the nation.”
The FBI conducted the investigation with assistance from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General.