Feds raid offices, U.S. reclamation bureau official’s home

Associated Press

Published Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016 | 11:38 a.m.

Updated Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016 | 4:02 p.m.

Federal investigators raided a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation office, an accounting firm and the home of a regional finance chief for the water management agency on Thursday in what officials called a public corruption probe.

A reclamation office in Boulder City was among the locations where search warrants were served, bureau spokeswoman Rose Davis said. The agency is cooperating in the investigation, she said.

Federal agents also searched the Henderson home of Rick Leavitt, a bureau official for more than 20 years who became regional financial management director in 2010, and the southwest Las Vegas offices of the accounting firm LL Bradford & Co.

Phones rang busy at the accounting office, and a message left for Leavitt at his office wasn't immediately returned. He wasn't publicly charged with a crime, and it wasn't clear if he had an attorney.

FBI spokeswoman Bridget Pappas said no arrests were made, and none were immediately expected.

A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden in Las Vegas said documents in the case are sealed by a court. She declined additional comment.

Other details weren't immediately made public.

Leavitt, 44, began working in the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation regional office as a student-employee in 1993 before becoming a certified public accountant, according to an announcement of his appointment as financial management office director. He was quoted saying he liked being involved with water, power, loans, grants and contracts.

The bureau is the keeper of the levers for Hoover Dam and other Colorado River facilities providing drinking water and hydropower to about 40 million residents, farms, tribes and businesses in seven states in the Southwest.

An FBI statement said the bureau's public corruption unit, the Internal Revenue Service and the federal Interior Department's Office of Inspector General were involved in the probe, along with the Las Vegas police's criminal intelligence section.