CEO on trial for fraud didn’t ‘deceive or cheat’ Bibb schools, lawyer says

A lawyer for Isaac J. Culver III, accused by federal prosecutors of defrauding Bibb County schools in a $3.7 million computer deal nearly six years ago, on Tuesday described Culver as an “extremely competent” businessman, one who provided the school system with what it asked for.

Live: Trial in alleged scheme to defraud Bibb County schools

Defense attorney John Garland, in his opening statement in U.S. District Court here, said Culver, CEO of Progressive Consulting Technologies Inc., never engaged in a “scheme to defraud” and that Culver’s “course of action was not intended to deceive or cheat.”

Garland’s remarks are among the first, if not the first, made publicly on Culver’s behalf since he was charged last year with wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy to launder money.

Culver’s defense team contends the accusations are false, at least in part, because, as Garland put it, Culver was doing “what the (school) district asked him to do.”

And that was to oversee a multimillion upgrade of the schools’ crumbling computer systems. The problem, according to prosecutors, is that the managers of that project — Culver and his company — were not permitted to sell computers to the school system, and to get around that hurdle, Culver used an Ohio company as an unseen go-between.

Prosecutors say Culver had the Ohio firm fake invoices to make it appear the Ohio firm was selling Bibb schools 15,000 computing devices that the schools paid $3.7 million for, netting Culver’s company nearly $2 million profit.

“This case is about fraud and a cover up,” assistant U.S. attorney Elizabeth S. Howard told jurors in her opening statement as Culver’s trial began.

Proving that will not be easy. The case is complex. The trial could last into next week, and as Howard herself told jurors, “a lot of this may seem confusing. … There are a lot of rabbit holes … that can lead you astray.”

The alleged wrongdoing happened during a time of tumult within the Bibb school system. Then-superintendent Romain Dallemand was nearing the end of an embattled 28-month tenure.

As Garland, Culver’s lawyer, noted on Tuesday, with 2012 drawing to a close, “Dallemand wanted to show results for all the money Bibb County had spent.”

Garland said Dallemand led with an “authoritarian” style, that it was “his way or the highway” and that Dallemand directed Culver and his company to “get it done.”

“There was,” Garland added, “no time to put the items out for bid.”

There were about four hours of questions and answers on Tuesday from four witnesses called by prosecutors to begin laying the framework for their case. The testimony was often less than riveting. Much of what witnesses spoke of dealt with the ins and outs for procurement, the bidding process and finance.

A quarter or more of the roughly three dozen people in the courtroom gallery were attorneys, legal pads in hand, with clients who are either plaintiffs or defendants in other cases, both civil and criminal, surrounding Dallemand’s tenure.

In Garland’s opening statement, he said Culver and his company “didn’t want to fleece the Bibb County School District,” but rather sought to make its tech-upgrading effort here “a model” to market to other schools across the country.

It was, Garland said, “a golden opportunity.”

Testimony resumes Wednesday morning at 8.

This story was originally published July 17, 2018 at 5:27 PM.