SAN ANTONIO -- A former Bexar County Housing Authority board member has been charged in federal court with illegally taking more than $100,000 in contracts from a Dallas company that benefited from his position on the board.
Carlos Madrid Jr. was charged Wednesday with deprivation of honest services, a charge that could bring up to 20 years in prison.
FBI investigators say Madrid's consulting company secretly accepted payments from Southwest Housing Development Inc. while he served on the housing authority board between 2002 and 2006.
Southwest Housing worked with the board to build two large projects, worth $39.7 million.
The arrangement allowed Southwest to qualify for property tax exemptions and federal tax credits worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Madrid resigned in May 2006, shortly after the San Antonio Express-News reported his contracts with Southwest Housing.
"It is my belief and assertion that Madrid defrauded the public of his honest services as an appointed official and misused his position as a commissioner on the Housing Authority of Bexar County ... to personally enrich himself in a series of transactions," wrote FBI Special Agent Fred Olivares in an affidavit.
Madrid's attorney, Tylden Shaeffer, said his client planned to plead guilty to the charge and would ask for a light sentence.
Shaffer described the violation as "technical," saying it was based on a simple conflict of interest.
Southwest Housing's former owners, Brian and Cheryl Potashnik, are under indictment in Dallas, accused of paying bribes to officials there. Their trial is expected sometime next year.
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