Boyce Allen Hudson: A Loud, Boasting Criminal
Updated February 11, 2010
His character witnesses said he liked to boast about what he could do. While the taxpayers paid him a $62,000 state salary, state officials claimed that he really didn’t wield any influence. Federal prosecutors disagreed, and Boyce Allen Hudson is now serving a 40-month federal sentence for extortion and money laundering in a scheme to arrange environmental permits for an ethanol plant in exchange for $200,000.
In the words of US Attorney George Holding, “Public servants who deal with the public on a day-to-day basis need to be above reproach.” Hudson failed that standard.
Agri-Ethanol Products
As the price of gas continued to rise, biofuels, which are made from corn and other agricultural products, rose to the top of the list of new industries for which North Carolina sought to position itself as a leader. The interest in the alternative fuels piqued the interest of entrepreneurs, including Agri-Ethanol Products (AEP) of Raleigh. AEP began planning a $220 million ethanol plant for Beaufort County, reportedly with backing from British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, although that claim has not been confirmed. The plant was to be owned by former ABC Commissioner Ricky Wright and strip club impresario Barry Green, a pair of Beverly Perdue moneymen, and former car salesman and AEP head David Lee Brady.
AEP’s plan for the plant was all the rage in economic development circles, and the company pulled every string it could find to fund the operation with taxpayer dollars and expedite environmental permitting. According to the Triangle Business Journal, “Beaufort County officials ironed out their own deal to provide Agri-Ethanol Products (AEP) with 200 acres of land; state environmental regulators smoothed the way to issue air and water permits for the plant; and lawmakers enacted a bill that would give Brady and his group up to $24 million in tax incentives.” (TBJ 3/14/08)
Federal prosecutors said that Hudson’s state job involved lobbying the Governor and the legislature for the Department of Environment & Natural Resources (DENR). While the Department did not agree with that conclusion, apparently Hudson did have at least some legislative connections. Longtime friend Senator A. B. Swindell affirmed Hudson’s character to the judge while declining to return his campaign donations.
Hudson joined DENR in 1986 after serving as Elm City’s town manager. He first met Wright and Green in 1993 on orders from Governor Jim Hunt’s office to help them with environmental issues concerning an economic development project. In 2004, the pair turned to Hudson again. Prosecutors concluded that “Hudson, while employed as a Senior Field Officer in the Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Office of the North Carolina Department of Environment & Natural Resources, solicited compensation totaling $196,000 for agreeing to help to expedite a Raleigh company’s air and water quality permits from DENR.”
The company, AEP, told potential investors that they had political connections that would help make the construction of their ethanol production plant near Aurora happen. Hudson’s role was to help expedite the environmental permits for the plant, and he was to receive the money after he retired on June 30, 2005, but all has not worked out as planned. AEP officials were unsuccessful in building their plant, and the company paid Hudson only $5,000. In a move unmatched for stupidity, Hudson then became impatient for the rest of his cash and he sent AEP an invoice for the balance, which was not remitted.
Hudson, however, made a bigger mistake when he accepted $15,000 in October 2005 from an FBI undercover agent posing as a potential investor in AEP. The money was to serve as a partial payment toward the $196,000 that AEP had agreed to pay him for expediting the permits while at DENR. (Dept. of Justice, 8/6/08)
David Lee Brady and another company owner, James Perry, were also indicted on corruption charges in connection with the scheme. On February 11, 2010, both were sentenced to 30 months in a federal penitentiary for their roles in the scheme.
DENR claims Hudson never had anything to do with approving the permits, although he did talk with environmental regulators about them. At the same time, then-Revenue Department Secretary Norris Tolson was also pushing DENR to speed up regulatory approval. With all of the various efforts being made on AEP’s behalf, it’s hard to determine whether Hudson’s intervention really made any difference – but Hudson assured AEP’s investors that it would – and in turn, they lined his pockets.
According to federal prosecutors, Hudson even admitted he had betrayed his position once before for personal gain in a previous scandal which they declined to disclose.
Boyce Allen Hudson has earned his place in the Capitol Monitor’s Hall of Shame.
