Just hours after he was indicted on federal racketeering charges, a former West Virginia Division of Highways official committed suicide, authorities said Wednesday.
Bob Andrew, who headed the DOH equipment division in Buckhannon for 16 years and last served as special executive assistant to state Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox, was found dead at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday in a vehicle registered to his name at a car wash just outside Bridgeport's city limits.
"We're waiting for official confirmation from the Medical Examiner's Office, but all indications point to that it was Mr. Andrew," Harrison County Sheriff Albert Marano said. "We do not suspect any foul play at this time."
Andrew died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to two law enforcement sources. A suicide note and shotgun were found inside the vehicle. He was 77.
Andrew was indicted late Tuesday afternoon on charges that he took bribes, rigged bids for favored vendors and directed state employees to work on Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's campaign in 2011, according to the indictment. Federal prosectors alleged Andrew fostered a "culture of corruption" at DOH.
DOH workers solicited contributions for Tomblin's campaign and drove in state-owned vehicles from the equipment division's headquarters in Buckhannon to other towns throughout West Virginia to collect checks from Tomblin's campaign donors, according to the indictment.
Under Andrew's orders, DOH employees also allegedly hung Tomblin campaign banners on semi-truck trailers parked on hillsides close to interstate highways. Some DOH workers also negotiated deals with property owners to lease land where they later placed the trailers and Tomblin campaign signs, federal prosecutors allege.
The DOH workers took part in the political activities for Tomblin's campaign while on state time, according to the indictment. The DOH reimbursed the state employees' travel expenses after they submitted falsified forms.
In 2011, the Tomblin campaign paid Andrew $3,500, according to a campaign finance report.
"All that was done by the campaign manager, but I think there was something with those signs or something they put up," Tomblin told the Gazette-Mail on Wednesday, after speaking at the West Virginia Business Summit at The Greenbrier resort. "Obviously, he invoiced the committee, and he was paid. Any of the services he rendered he was paid for, like everybody else."
Tomblin said he didn't know DOH equipment division employees reportedly had worked for his campaign while on state time.
"From what I saw of the indictment, there were some things done on state time that we had no knowledge of," he said.
Tomblin said he had known Andrew for five or six years and was aware that Andrew formerly ran the equipment division, which has about 100 employees and distributes trucks, machinery and parts to DOH district office across the state.
Amid the federal investigation, Andrew was reassigned in January 2014 as special executive assistant to Mattox. He kept an office in Buckhannon and received a pay raise before he abruptly resigned in August of that year.
"I think the Division of Highways started addressing the problem and removed him from the [equipment division director's] position up in Buckhannon," Tomblin said. "That's really about the first time I knew about the alleged things that they indicted him for."
Andrew's 43-page indictment alleges multiple schemes that the former high-ranking DOH official took part in:
n In 2013, Andrew received a $3,000 kickback from a salvage company. Andrew directed DOH workers to put six sheets of aluminum plating in dumpsters in Upshur County. The salvage business paid the equipment division $2,800 for the aluminum and later sold the scrap metal for $14,800. Andrew and another DOH worker demanded a kickback, and the salvage company's owner hand-delivered $3,000 in cash to Andrew.
n Andrew directed DOH workers to use state-issued credit cards - called "P" cards - to buy more than $1 million in tractor mower components from Mo Trim Inc., a Cambridge, Ohio, company. Mo Trim had a state contract to sell only smaller mower parts, but Andrew used the contract to buy the larger mower components. Andrew later worked with Mo Trim executives to rig a bid that was awarded to a company that sold tractors compatible with Mo Trim's mowers.
n Andrew directed DOH workers to drive former DOH trucks sold at auction to Baltimore and Montreal. DOH employees, on state time, delivered the trucks to buyers at no cost - a violation of state surplus property rules. Buyers are required to arrange and pay all delivery expenses.
n Andrew re-sold cranes and trucks the DOH purchased at federal General Services Administration auctions. GSA rules forbid the re-selling of vehicles and equipment.
n He also tampered with DOH documents and directed his former secretary to lie to a federal grand jury.
The U.S. Attorney's Office, FBI, the West Virginia Legislature's Commission on Special Investigations and the West Virginia State Police had been investigating Andrew for more than three years.
Reach Eric Eyre at ericeyre@wvgazette.com, 304-348-4869 or follow @ericeyre on Twitter.
Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazette.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.