Former state official pleads guilty to corruption charges

A former state official pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal corruption charges in connection with an investigation into the permitting of a plant for Raleigh-based Agri-Ethanol Products.

Boyce Allen Hudson, a former North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources official who left the department in 2005, pleaded guilty to charges of extortion and money laundering. He will be sentenced in July and faces as many as 30 years in prison, plus a $500,000 fine.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Raleigh says Hudson, 67, agreed to accept just under $200,000 from Agri-Ethanol Products, a Raleigh company that sought to build a $200 million ethanol plant in Beaufort County. In return, Hudson agreed to expedite Agri-Ethanol's DENR permitting.

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Landing a permit, prosecutors say, was a key step in fundraising for Agri-Ethanol. It was so important, in fact, that the company told potential investors about its agreement with Hudson. One of them, however, alerted authorities.

TBJ reported in March that federal agents were investigating Agri-Ethanol Products, which was founded in 2004 by Jim Perry, a former Wake Forest mayor, and Dave Brady, a Raleigh businessman. Company officials once said they had landed financing for as many as 20 ethanol plants up and down the East Coast, but land was never bought for the first plant in Beaufort County.

Federal court documents say the company never raised the money it needed to get off the ground.

The case is still under investigation.