A former Tennessee Department of Corrections official has been charged with bid-rigging. (Getty Images)
A former Tennessee Department of Correction official is facing federal felony charges in connection with a scheme to direct a $123 million contract to a behavioral health services company in return for a job.
Federal prosecutors charged Wesley Olan Landers, 55, of Cumming, Georgia, and Jeffrey Scott Wells, 54, of Canton, Georgia, with conspiracy to obstruct justice and commit perjury, claiming the former state official provided information to Wells during bidding for a state contract.
The Tennessee Lookout previously reported that prison contractor Corizon filed a lawsuit in 2021 claiming that Landers, deputy commissioner and chief financial officer for the state Correction Department from 2012 until March 2020, spoke by email with a Centurion vice president, identified as “Company B” in the federal indictment, during the contracting process and wound up getting a “cushy” job with a Centurion affiliate.