Chris Epps, the head of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, has been indicted for allegedly passing out public contracts with his department in exchange for kickbacks—”taking more than $1 million in bribes and kickbacks over the last eight years in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars in prison contracts.” This kickbacks included vendors paying the mortgage on his home.
He and his alleged co-conspirator, Rankin County school board president Cecil McCrory, each pleaded not guilty to a string of charges from a 49-count indictment.Trial is set for January.
Epps awarded a no-bid MDOC contract for McCrory’s company, G.T. Enterprises, to provide commissary services at state and private prisons.Shortly after, authorities say, Epps had McCrory pay off his home mortgage with three $100,000 cashier’s checks and a $50,000 check all spaced months apart.
According to the daily newspaper in Jackson, the investigation into Epps and McCrory has been ongoing for years and included local, state and numerous federal agencies, including the FBI, IRS and U.S. Postal Service.
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