Tip of the hat to GovExec, which reports that defrocked General services Administration executive Francis Jones died of a heart attack at 55 while serving an eight-year prison sentence. Jones was convicted in 2003 on charges of extortion, accepting bribes and fraud.
Jones ... maintained his innocence, despite evidence that he had accepted more than $1 million in gifts, including trips to Las Vegas and Rolex watches during his time at GSA and the Department of Defense.
In the late 1990s, Jones served as deputy director of GSA's Federal Acquisition Services for Technology program and was a member of the Senior Executive Service. In 1998, he moved to DOD to serve as special assistant in the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization.
In an April 2006 interview, Jones blamed his conviction on racism. "It's not like GSA or DOD had a lot of blacks in procurement situations," he said. "So once that happens, you're going to always be investigated for something." Defense investigators who worked on his case said race had nothing to do with it.
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