HOUSTON – A “charity”, a city job, and a lot of money. The city of Houston employee at the center of our ‘DRAINED’ Investigation is accused of using an elaborate scheme to steal thousands of dollars.
Patrece Lee was arrested on four counts of bribery and official abuse of capacity. Earlier this week, a grand jury indicted her on a sixth charge of organized criminal activity.
Court records show taxpayer money sent to so-called charity
KPRC 2 Investigates showed you the records and contracts in November that showed Lee started a business in her brother’s name and then awarded him and other friends city water line contracts for millions of dollars.
Court records now reveal Patrece used some of the money she got in kickbacks for a so-called charity she set up.
Investigator Amy Davis is taking you inside the charity to show you where some of your tax dollars went.
City of Houston water manager Patrece Lee didn’t just manage Houston’s waterline crisis in 2022 and 2023, but she also ran:
- a mobile tax service
- a consulting service called KB3 Construction
- and KB3 Charities
On social media, Lee promoted the “good works” and community giveaways she hosted with the help of her co-defendants.
In one jazzy video clip, Lee is carrying around merchandise followed by her assistant Danielle Hurts.
Investigators say she used an alias to collect money from both the city and the city contractors for the same jobs. Also shown in the video, former City of Houston water employee Ernet Allen, Junior, who is also named in court documents.
You can also see Patrece’s brother, Andrew Thomas.
“I’m the little brother. I’m here for my big sister,” said Thomas.
Thomas hid behind a door when we tried to ask him questions in November, but we caught him outside of court earlier this month.
Amy: “Was that a legitimate charity that you were asking vendors to give money to?”
Thomas: “I can’t speak about vendors giving money to anything. What I can say is that we did go out into the community, and we helped actual people.”
Amy: “How did you get money to go out into the community and help those people?”
Thomas: “Ummm.. that I can’t speak on either, but what I can say is we did go out into the community. We did have actual people that needed, you know- all sorts of assistance. whether it may be here for a light bill, here for some clothes. That was good work that we did.”
Thomas claims he was on the board of KB3 Charities, but he didn’t ask any city contractors for money.
Court records show co-defendant Frank Perkins told investigators that “Lee proposed to him that he pay 10% of any deal he gets with the City of Houston to her charity.”
Perkins got $349,000 from the city.
He paid Lee $28,000 and then he paid co-defendant Danielle Hurts another $17,000.
Amy: “It seems like a conflict of interest.”
Thomas: “I never asked anyone for money. From what I understand, I didn’t know about any contractors being involved with the charity.”
We wanted to tell you exactly how much money KB3 Charities took in or gave out, but we couldn’t find any of the tax documents most non-profit charities file with the IRS each year.
And here’s why... This isn’t a true charity.
KB3 Charities is actually a for-profit LLC. It wasn’t just Frank Perkins contributing.
A video posted on Facebook by Danielle Hurts shows City of Houston senior inspector Cesar Cordova attending this KB3 toy drive in December 2021.
KPRC 2 Investigates told you last year Cordova and his cousin Joe Garcia started C and J Arsenal and got a city of Houston contract for more than $3 million. And while Garcia billed the city for that contract, he also collected a paycheck for working as an inspector for yet another company.
Do you have something you want Investigator Amy Davis to look into? Email: ADavis@kprc.com.