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Former VA official in St. Louis pleads guilty to accepting gratuities from government contractors

s_falkow | Flickr

A former Veterans Administration official in St. Louis has pleaded guilty to accepting gratuities from government contractors.

The U.S. Attorney's office in St. Louis says 69-year-old Russell Todd of Chesterfield pleaded guilty Thursday. Sentencing is June 12.

Todd accepted about $20,000 in baseball tickets, meals and entertainment at a gentleman's club from Joseph Madlinger and Michael Woodling between 2007 and 2010. At the time, Todd was director of projects for the VA Medical Center in St. Louis and was steering $3.4 million in work at the VA to a company owned by Madlinger and Woodling.

Woodling and Madlinger pleaded guilty in February to making the illegal payment to Todd and defrauding the VA by setting up a front company purportedly owned by a disabled veteran. They face sentencing in May.