Dennis Falaschi charged in multi-million dollar scheme as records show he wasn’t only one to take water from California’s farm region

A former California water official has pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal water in a deal with federal prosecutors in the state’s crop-rich central valley.

The Los Angeles Times reports Tuesday that 78-year-old Dennis Falaschi, who used to head the Panoche water district, entered the plea in federal court in Fresno. He also pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return.

Falaschi was accused in a case that alleged that more than $25m in water was stolen over two decades when it was siphoned from a federal irrigation canal through a secret pipe and sold to farmers and other water districts. The Panoche water district supplies irrigation for farmland in Fresno and Merced counties – much of it from the federal Delta-Mendota canal.

Authorities said in court documents that Falaschi wasn’t the only one taking water, but did not specify who else was involved. They estimated Falaschi stole less than $3.5m in water, a small portion of what they initially alleged had been stolen.

  • Riskable
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    447 months ago

    Welcome to the future! I believe this is how the next world war starts?

    • Flying Squid
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      97 months ago

      Adam was dust until God injected him with life. And do you know what was in that injection? Water. Water is life. Water is power.

      – Kesslee, Tank Girl

    • @[email protected]
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      77 months ago

      That’ll happen if Trump wins in November and pulls support from Ukraine and NATO allies in the name of isolationism.

      Water theft during drought is some dystopian post-apocalyptic shit.