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A former water manager from California was indicted by a federal grand jury on multiple charges for allegedly stealing $25 million worth of water over 23 years.
Prosecutors said that 75-year-old Dennis Falaschi, who used to work as the general manager for the Panoche Water District in central California, ordered employees to install a gate inside of an abandoned drain turnout that had been damaged.
He ordered his employees to disguise the gate, which could be opened and closed on demand so that nobody else would realize that federal water was being diverted to another canal.
The diverted water ended up in a pump station where it was combined with the district's other water sources. The extra water was either sold to customers or pumped back into the same canal it was stolen from, allowing the district to collect additional water credits. To hide the theft of the water, Falaschi told employees to misclassify it as reclaimed runoff from nearby farms.
Overall, prosecutors said that 130,000 acre-feet of water was stolen.
Falaschi then proceeded to use the money made from the stolen water "pay himself and others exorbitant salaries, fringe benefits, and personal expense reimbursements."
He was indicted on charges of conspiracy, theft of government property, and filing false tax returns. He is also facing a criminal investigation into allegations that he embezzled money from the water district.