Rule G-37 basher Blount gets four years in prison for kickback scheme

A former Alabama municipal bond dealer whose failed challenge to a pay-to-play rule set a legal precedent, was sentenced today to four years and four months in prison on corruption charges.

William Blount, 56, the former chairman of Blount Parrish & Co. Inc., pleaded guilty last summer to a single count each of conspiracy and bribery.

He was sentenced along with one of his co-conspirators, Albert LaPierre, a lobbyist, who received a sentence of four years.

Judge L. Scott Coogler of the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama also ordered Mr. Blount to forfeit $1 million, and sentenced him to another three years of supervised release following his prison term. In addition, Mr. Blount was banned from doing business with a government agency as an adviser.

The men were indicted in 2008 on charges of conspiracy, bribery and money laundering in an alleged scheme related to bond deals and swap agreements with Jefferson County, Ala.

A third man involved in the scheme, former Birmingham mayor and Jefferson County commissioner Larry Langford, was convicted in October and awaits sentencing on March 5.

Federal prosecutors alleged that between 2002 and 2006, Mr. Langford directed Jefferson County bond business worth $7.1 million in fees to Mr. Blount in return for $235,000 worth of clothing, jewelry and cash.

“Bill Blount and Al LaPierre bought a county commission president for cash, jewelry and clothing and continued the legacy of corruption in Jefferson County government,” acting U.S. Attorney Jim Phillips said in a statement.

Mr. Blount’s attorney, David McKnight of Baxley Dillard Dauphin McKnight & James in Birmingham, was not immediately available for comment.

In 1994, Mr. Blount filed a lawsuit challenging the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s pay-to-play rule, Rule G-37, which limits political contributions by bond dealers to public officials.

He challenged the rule on constitutional grounds, but lost the case and appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

In 1995, the appeals court upheld the constitutionality of G-37. In doing so, the court created a landmark legal precedent, Blount vs. SEC.