Former manager pleads guilty to embezzling toilet rebates
The former manager of the water conservation program at the East Bay Municipal Utility District, Oakland, Calif., pleaded guilty in late August to embezzling more than $1 million in federal funds to support the low-flow toilet rebate program.
John Passama, who will be sentenced in December to 21 to 33 months in prison, used customer addresses to create phantom installations and deposited their rebates into a bogus company, P.C. Properties. A total of $1.3 million was stolen between early 1996 and late 1998. Numerous phone calls to Passama's attorney were not returned.