Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Father and Son Indicted on Federal Bribery Charge

Kenny Biglane, age 67, and Peter Biglane, age 40, both of Laurel, Mississippi, were arraigned in federal court on Thursday, May 12, 2011, announced Daniel McMullen, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Jackson Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and John Dowdy, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi. Peter Biglane is the owner of Oxpatch Resources, a company which provides services relative to oil purchases, title research, and land acquisition and leasing. The Biglanes were indicted by the federal grand jury for the Southern District of Mississippi earlier this year and are each charged with theft or bribery concerning a program which receives benefits under federal programs providing assistance to the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

According to the indictment, in 2009, and in furtherance of a scheme to funnel work from the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) to Oxpatch Resources, Kenny Biglane, Peter Biglane's father, approached an employee of MDOT, with authority to act as an agent for MDOT. Biglane asked the employee to help his son's company obtain MDOT right-of-way contracts. In exchange for the contracts, the MDOT employee was to receive a portion of the profits from those contracts, with the remainder being divided between Kenny and Peter Biglane.

The MDOT employee notified MDOT's Office of Enforcement of Biglane's offer, and the resulting FBI/MDOT investigation led to the indictment of both Kenny and Peter Biglane.

Following their arraignment before United States Magistrate Judge Linda Anderson, the Biglanes were released on $10,000 bond each, pending their trial which is scheduled for July 11, 2011.

This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Carlos Tanner.

The public is reminded that an indictment is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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