Ex-HUD Official leads Guilty in Influence Case

WASHINGTON —  A Colorado developer and former ambassador pleaded guilty to conspiracy Tuesday in the $2-billion influence-peddling scandal at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Philip D. Winn of Englewood, Colo., admitted in a plea agreement to offering top HUD officials a $20,000 loan and use of his ski condominium at Vail in exchange for favorable action on his requests for some $133 million in HUD subsidies in the mid-1980s.

Winn, a former state Republican Party chairman in Colorado, was an assistant secretary at HUD and federal housing commissioner in 1981-82 and later served as ambassador to Switzerland.

As part of the plea entered in U.S. District Court, Winn agreed to pay a criminal fine of $981,975. He also could be sentenced to up to five years in prison, but prosecutors noted his cooperation in their investigation of other HUD figures.

Winn is expected to testify in the upcoming trial of former Assistant Housing Secretary Thomas T. Demery on 19 charges of bribery, conspiracy, perjury and obstructing justice.

Judge Stanley Harris did not set a date for sentencing.