Former CT CEO gets prison for misusing funds, including for lavish trips

The former chief executive officer of the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Corporation was sentenced to prison for misusing CMEEC funds, including for lavish trips. according to federal officials.

Drew Rankin, 62, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer in New Haven to a total of 12 months of imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release, according to federal officials.

Authorities, citing both evidence and testimony presented during a trial in 2021, said Rankin and certain members of the CMEEC Board of Directors “planned, organized, and directed lavish trips outside of Connecticut, including trips to the Kentucky Derby in 2015 and 2016, and to a luxury golf resort in West Virginia in 2015.”

The trips, however, did not relate to CMEEC business, “but were intended to personally benefit, compensate and reward Rankin, CMEEC Board members, their family members, friends, and associates,” authorities said in a statement. “Costs for the trips, which totaled more than $800,000, included travel expenses, private chartered airfare, first-class hotel accommodations, meals, tickets to sporting events, golf fees, souvenirs and gifts.”

Rankin underreported costs of the trips, omitted names of attendees who were not CMEEC employees or board members, and “made other false statements related to how the trips were funded,” the statement said.  “After the trips were known to the general public, CMEEC canceled a reservation it had made for the 2017 Kentucky Derby, and was refunded only approximately $90,000 of the $298,960 it had prepaid for the trip in May 2016.”

Authorities said restitution will be determined after additional court proceedings. CMEEC “is a cooperative public corporation that permits municipal electric utilities in Connecticut to join together to furnish electric power in the municipalities’ areas of operation,” authorities said. From 2010 to 2015, CMEEC received more than $9 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, the statement said.

Rankin; James Sullivan, former chairperson of the CMEEC Board of Directors; and John Bilda, former city of Norwich representative on the CMEEC Board of Directors; were found guilty by a jury in 2021 of one count of theft concerning a program receiving federal funds, according to federal officials. Rankin free on $100,000 bond and must report to prison on July 11.

Sullivan is scheduled to be sentenced Friday, and Bilda is scheduled to be sentenced on May 18.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division; with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security – Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Department of Energy.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah P. Karwan, Michael S. McGarry and Tara E. Levens.