MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – Federal authorities on Thursday unsealed an indictment accusing former employees of the Prichard Water Works and Sewer Board of corruption.
The move has been anticipated since federal law enforcement officers from multiple agencies raided the utility’s headquarters in February 2022, hauling out boxes of records and computer equipment. The investigation centered on allegations that Nia Malika Bradley, the system’s former operations manager, charged hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of personal expenses to a utility-issued credit card. Jay Ross, who was the utility’s attorney at the time, called it the “worst case of public corruption” he ever saw.
Bradley, 50, is named in the 32-count federal indictment. But U.S. Attorney Sean Costello said in a news conference that the scope of the federal probe extends far beyond the credit card fraud that state prosecutors alleged and reached the board member level.
“Our investigations, while they have been related, have been separate, obviously. …The indictment that the grand jury returned here is involving much different conduct and, really some, some different schemes,” he said…