Local Accountant Sentenced to Prison for Bribing Public Official

February 3, 2010 - United States Attorney Thomas Scott Woodward announced that the accountant for a local engineering firm was sentenced in federal court today for bribing a Tulsa public works official. Stuart Jay Franklin, age 49, of Claremore, an accountant for FBS, Inc., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Terence Kern to 30 months' confinement in the Federal Bureau of Prisons and was ordered to make restitution to the City of Tulsa in the amount of $51,825.

Franklin was originally charged in a Grand Jury indictment unsealed in January 2009 for his participation in a bribery scheme involving a Tulsa public works project. He plead guilty on September 16, 2009, to a charge of Bribery. Franklin admitted that he paid a $6,150 bribe to former Tulsa Public Works Field Engineering Manager Albert Martinez in September 2008 to influence the awarding of a city contract to FBS, Inc., a Tulsa engineering consulting firm. Franklin is the fifth defendant to be sentenced to federal prison in this case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Clinton J. Johnson, Joseph F. Wilson and Catherine J. Depew prosecuted the case for the government. This public corruption scandal involving the Tulsa Public Works Department was first revealed to the public on January 22, 2009, when the federal indictments were unsealed and an announcement was made at a news conference by former U.S. Attorney David E. O'Meilia, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge James E. Finch, and IRS Criminal Investigations Division Special Agent-in-Charge Michael P. Lahey. They jointly announced at that time that two former managers at the City of Tulsa Public Works Department and four area businessmen were charged by a Grand Jury for their participation in bribery and fraud schemes involving millions of dollars intended for city streets, bridges, and other public works projects in the City of Tulsa.