FL Building Inspector Sentenced to Fraud and Bribery

United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, Thomas Kirwin announced in a press release that Wille Keen, Jr. aka Billy Keen on November 9th of this year was sentenced to six and a half years in federal prison.

Mr. Keen, who is sixty years of age and the former Dixie County Building and Zoning Inspector, was convicted for Federal Program Fraud. His conviction resulted from a two day trial last March that was conducted in the United States District Court in Gainesville. Prosecutors presented evidence to the court that between March and October of 2003 Mr. Keen used funds from the Community Development Block Grant and State Housing Initiative Programs in order to renovate his personal home. Mr. Keen who was the Dixie County Building and Zoning Inspector at the time was not eligible to receive funds from the Community Development Block Grant or the State Housing Initiative Program due to his position. Mr. Keen used his girlfriends name to apply for the programs and represented on the applications that she was the owner of his property.

Mr. Keen received grants in the amount of over thirty two thousand dollars which he used to renovate his home. The trial in March revealed evidence that Mr. Keen was aware that he was being investigated for the fraudulent applications and that Mr. Keen used that knowledge to try and hide his misdeed. Mr. Keen proceeded to remove documents from the country clerk’s official file and replace the deed with a deed showing he had conveyed his home to his girlfriend. Mr. Keen, however was not aware that the country clerk had previously submit copies of the deed to The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the deed he placed in the file did not match the deed previously summit to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Mr. Keen was order to forfeit his home in Old Town, Florida and was ordered to pay restitution in addition to his six and a half year sentence.

Mr. Keen was also charged in a non related case with conspiring to accept bribes, accepting bribes and lying to Federal Agents. Mr. Keen and his conspirators John Driggers and Alton Land, both of whom are Dixie Country Commissions have all been convicted in this case. The case was held in the United States District Court in Gainesville last August and lasted for four days. The evidence in the trial included audio tapes and video that clearly shows the conspirators meeting with undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation Agents and accepting monetary payments for the influence in regard to the Dixie County Board of County Commissioners.  The evidence also revealed that Keen, Driggers and Land did offer their approval for developments within Dixie County in exchange for monetary amounts and other inducements. The conspirators did indeed influence other members of the board to approve developments that may not have otherwise been approved.

Mr. Driggers and Mr. Land are scheduled to appear before The Honorable Chief United States District Judge, Stephen P. Mickie on January 4, 2010.

United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, Thomas Kirwin thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their diligent effort in bring the case to prosecution and their continued effort in bring cases involving public officials to a close. Assistant United States Attorney Gregory P. McMahon prosecuted the case.