El Paso Contractor Sentenced to Prison for Defrauding Bureau of Prisons

EL PASO, Texas – An El Paso man was sentenced in a federal court to 24 months in prison with a $5,000 fine for defrauding two federally funded correctional institutions.

According to court documents, Jack McCager Kidd, 72, was the owner of a company contracted by the Bureau of Prisons to construct two gas pipelines to separate correctional institutions—a high-security prison in Pennsylvania and a medium-security prison in Alabama. Kidd falsely invoiced the institutions for more natural gas than his company delivered and refused to provide information requested by the institutions concerning the amount of natural gas delivered and the calculations he used to determine the monthly invoice amounts.

He was arrested Oct. 28, 2021 and charged with 72 counts of wire fraud. He pleaded guilty Aug. 30, 2023 to one count of wire fraud. Per the plea agreement, Kidd also agreed to pay $11,397,374 in restitution.

U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas made the announcement.

The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General Fraud Detection Office and FBI investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Chris Skillern and Sarah Valenzuela prosecuted the case.

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