STAFF REPORT
A Kendall County jury found former Pedernales Electric Cooperative attorney Walter Demond guilty of theft and money laundering and sentenced him to 10 years probation and 500 days in jail, to be served 100 days at a time for five years.
Demond was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and $212,000 in restitution to the now-defunct Clark, Thomas & Winters, one of the state’s oldest and largest law firms until it started unraveling due in part to Demond’s criminal charges.
As the cooperative’s attorney under the reign of former General Manager Bennie Fuelberg, Demond helped arrange $700,000 in payments to Fuelberg’s lobbyist brother, Curtis Fuelberg, without the board of directors’ knowledge.
In December, a Blanco County jury found Fuelberg guilty of third-degree felony charges of money laundering, theft and misappropriation of fiduciary property and sentenced him to 300 days in jail as part of his probation sentence. Fuelberg got off lighter than the lawyer that worked for him. Demond’s convictions were for a first-degree felony charge of theft and second-degree money laundering and misapplication of fiduciary property.
In his brother’s trial, Curtis Fuelberg testified that he was paid as a consultant to keep PEC abreast of legislation that could impact the co-op. For three decades, Fuelberg unequivocally ruled PEC, earning $6.3 million in his last 10 years at the co-op. In 2007, a member-led lawsuit blew open the previously cloistered and secretive co-op, leading to the ouster of top officials. Over the course of three elections, PEC members voted out incumbents on the PEC board of directors, replacing them with candidates who campaigned on a reform platform.
Former PEC board president, W.W. “Bud” Burnett, a former Hays County judge, was never charged.
Since PEC’s recent open elections, the position of general manager, Fuelberg’s former position, has been tumultuous, with several changes. R.B. Sloan Jr., formerly a utilities director for two municipalities in Virginia and a CEO of a 120,000 member co-op, was hired as the new GM earlier this year.
