BACKSTORY
In May 2011, police in Las Vegas, Nevada, arrested Robert Coache, a recently retired state water regulator, and Michael Johnson, an employee of the Virgin Valley Water District. They were accused of conspiring to take $1.3 million in kickbacks from local businessman John Lonetti Jr., in exchange for brokering water rights at inflated prices to Johnson’s employer and the powerful Southern Nevada Water Authority (“The water hustle,” HCN, 11/23/15).
FOLLOWUP
In November, a jury found Coache and Johnson guilty of conspiracy, extortion, bribery and dozens of money-laundering charges. On Jan. 18, both men received three-to-eight-year prison sentences. Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo prosecuted the five-and-a-half-year-long case. “I got one hell of an education in water rights, and an even bigger education in public fraud,” says DiGiacomo, who normally handles murder cases. “Despite there being no dead victim, this was a very important case. They’ve been unrepentant.”
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Latest: Participants in Nevada water hustle found guilty.
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