Former secretary of the Kentucky Personnel Cabinet Tim Longmeyer has been sentenced to 70 months in prison after pleading guilty to federal bribery charges. He will also have to pay about $200,000 in restitution.
U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell said that Longmeyer had damaged public trust in the government and hoped to sentence would deter future bad actors.
In April, Longmeyer pled guilty to accepting more than $212,000 in kickbacks in exchange for funneling state contracts to a consulting firm while he was Personnel Cabinet secretary under former Gov. Steve Beshear.
MC Squared conducted focus groups for Anthem and Humana, which managed the state’s employee health insurance plan over the period. Longmeyer arranged for the state to pay the firm more than $2 million in contract work in exchange for the kickbacks.
Attorney General Andy Beshear, the former governor’s son, hired Longmeyer to be a top deputy in his office. Longmeyer resigned from the position days before he was charged with bribery.
Longmeyer begins his sentence on December 7th.
Pursued by reporters as he left the courthouse Thursday afternoon, Longmeyer apologized to the employees of the Personnel Cabinet. “I’m particularly sorry for the employees that often don’t get the recognition and do the hard work and I might have diminished their accomplishments for some of the things I’ve done, I’m very sorry.”
Officials say investigation into the scheme is still ongoing, but won’t disclose if any more indictments are forthcoming.
