Prosecutors target former CEO of Mammoth Energy Services’ Cobra Acquisitions with fraud and conspiracy charges

Sep. 11--A federal grand jury meeting in Puerto Rico indicted a former top executive at a subsidiary of Oklahoma City-based Mammoth Energy Services who worked on restoring the island's hurricane-destroyed grid, accusing him of illegally influencing a federal officials to gain business there.

Keith Ellison, former president of Cobra Acquisitions, was indicted on charges of wire fraud, disaster fraud, conspiracy to commit bribery and making false statements to federal investigators, court documents filed Tuesday showed.

Ahsha Tribble, who had been a deputy regional administrator with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, also was indicted by the grand jury on charges of wire fraud, disaster fraud, conspiracy to commit bribery and violating the Travel Act.

Finally, the grand jury indicted Jovanda R. Patterson, a former FEMA employee, accusing her of committing acts that created personal financial conflicts of interest and of wire fraud, the court documents showed.

Ellison led Cobra while it bid for and obtained $1.8 billion in contracts to help restore the island's electrical grid after Hurricane Maria, while Tribble, a FEMA deputy regional administrator, led the agency's response to repair power and other infrastructure systems in Puerto Rico after the storm. She also was a designated recovery manager for the agency, giving her the authority to approve public assistance projects worth up to $200 million in value.

In October 2017, Cobra Acquisitions signed a $200 million agreement with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to begin providing repair services on the island. Amendments to that contract eventually increased its total amount to about $945.4 million.

Cobra Acquisitions in March 2018 signed a second, $900 million contract to make repairs to the island's grid.

However, the indictments stated that between October 2017 and April 2019, Ellison provided Tribble with hotel accommodations, the use of a helicopter, airfare, personal security and a credit card to get the agency to give favorable treatment to Cobra.

The grand jury stated Ellison provided to Tribble either directly or indirectly a helicopter tour over Puerto Rico Feb. 7, 2018, assistance in procuring a place to live in New York the same month and the hiring of Patterson to a job at Cobra.

The grand jury also accused Ellison of having secured a job for Patterson and of having provided airline tickets and hotel stays to Tribble.

The indictments stated that Tribble, in return, pressured the electrical authority to award business to Cobra and to accelerate payments to the company.

One example of that influence, the grand jury stated, was a situation in February 2018 where Tribble insisted Puerto Rico's power authority hire Cobra to make repairs to a substation that had exploded, even though its costs were much higher than the price for which the authority's personnel could have done the work.

Ellison, a decorated Army Ranger who served in Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, was CEO of Cobra from January 2017 until June.

Before that, he served as a CEO, executive vice president and vice president at other companies in the utility industry during a civilian career that spanned 18 years.

Evidence of the criminal probe surfaced earlier this year when Ellison took the government to court challenging its seizure of numerous investment, checking and saving accounts in his name as well as a Caterpillar tractor, a boat trailer, a catamaran and a Ford pickup.

The indictments issued Tuesday stated the government intends to enforce those forfeitures.

On Tuesday, Mammoth Energy Services officials confirmed they were aware charges had been filed and issued the following statement: "Mammoth is aware of and has been cooperating with the government's investigation into Ms. Tribble and Mr. Ellison and will continue to do so."

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