Ex-candidate Olivarez faces additional bribery accusations

HARLINGEN - Prominent insurance agent Arnulfo "Arnie" Olivarez faces additional accusations that he paid thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for public contracts.

The latest charges stem from business Olivarez's insurance-company clients received from the Edcouch-Elsa school district between 1999 and 2005, investigators said.

The agent is accused of giving gifts of money, plane tickets and condo rentals to then school board president Aaron Luis Gonzalez and other district officials in exchange for votes on insurance contracts with the district, according to a three-count federal indictment issued March 18. Investigators said they value those gifts at more than $26,000.

Olivarez, 58, was a 2006 candidate for Texas House District 38 - comprised of southwest Cameron County and currently represented by Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville. The insurance agent is one of three contractors already under indictment in connection with a similar case with the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school board.

Olivarez now faces charges of conspiracy, bribery, and mail fraud in the Edcouch-Elsa and PSJA cases but has pleaded not guilty in both. If convicted on all counts, he could face up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

His attorney - Heriberto Medrano - could not be reached for comment Thursday.

His business, Harlingen-based Insurance Associates of the Valley, has won several government insurance contracts on behalf of its clients. But federal prosecutors allege Olivarez often turned to illegal means to land business for the insurance companies that employed him.

Prosecutors allege that on at least 13 occasions, he bribed district officials with gifts such as:

* $16,000 given to Gonzalez and an insurance company he owned.

* Condo rentals on South Padre Island used by the former board president and other school district officials.

* Plane tickets from Harlingen to Las Vegas for board members and school district staff.

* Membership and greens fees to a Cameron County country club.

Gonzalez, who pleaded guilty to extortion charges in a similar case in June 2006, also solicited bribes from contractors within the construction, architecture and masonry fields, prosecutors said. He resigned his seat in March of that year and awaits sentencing July 9.

He was not charged in the latest case, under a plea deal with prosecutors.

Current Edcouch-Elsa school board president J.J. Ybarra said the district no longer purchases insurance through agents like Olivarez.

Ybarra said the district now brokers contracts directly with the insurance companies.

"This activity is all from several years back," he said. "We had a lot of obstacles but we just keep moving on."