DENVER—A former Colorado Department of Transportation employee has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for stealing fuel from the department.
Forty-one-year-old Jaime Perez also was ordered Thursday to pay $446,560 in restitution.
Perez had pleaded guilty to violating Colorado’s Organized Crime Control Act.
Prosecutors say that while Perez worked as a heavy equipment operator for CDOT, he illegally cloned state fuel cards and gave them to Fernando Ibarra-Gonzalez and Asuncion Aguirre-Barron. The three were accused of using the cards to buy diesel fuel and sell it to others. Perez’s co-defendants pleaded guilty earlier in connection with the case and have been deported.
Perez apologized in court Thursday to the department, his family and the public.
