Brumfield - Speight pleads guilty in bioFlop

Patsy Brumfield continues her coverage of biodiesel crimes in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.

Disbarred Tennessee attorney H. Max Speight pleaded guilty today to participation in a nearly $3 million biodiesel fraud of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Today, he responded to a deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and pleaded guilty to one count charging him with filing false subsidy statements about production at a now-shuttered Nettleton refinery.

That leaves William T. “Tommy” Tacker II of Aberdeen the sole defendant in the case.

Speight and Tacker were partners in the operation, which went bankrupt in 2006. In 2008, Speight went to state prison in Tennessee after pleading guilty to stealing more than $1 million from several legal clients.

We've been keeping an eye on this as well and look forward to more of Patsy's reporting on it.