A contractor accused of stealing nearly $1 million from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is due in court Friday for arraignment on a dozen felony counts.
Oscar James Edwards, 48, is facing four counts each of grand theft and embezzlement, three counts of money laundering and one count of perjury.
Prosecutors said the LADWP contracted with Edwards, who owned Computer Systems Integration Corp., to provide solar inverters from a Colorado company in 2014.
The inverters were delivered to the utility, which paid Edwards about $970,000, but Edwards never turned that cash over to the Colorado company, prosecutors allege.
Prosecutors said they would recommend bail of $615,000 for Edwards, who faces up to 16 years in prison if convicted of all the charges.
— Wire reports