Ex-Cone Constructors employee gets 3 years for fraud

TAMPA -- A former employee of Cone Constructors received a three-year federal prison sentence today for her part in the road building company's bankruptcy fraud.

Patricia Rankin Grable, 53, must also pay more than $1.77-million in restitution.

Grable pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to commit bankruptcy fraud and wire fraud affecting a financial institution. She admitted to passing off fake and back-dated documents as legitimate during Cone Constructors bankruptcy proceedings.

Once one of the state's largest road builders, Cone Constructors served as general contractor for parts of the Suncoast Parkway through Hillsborough and Pasco counties.

Grable's sentencing comes on the heels of the sentencing of co-defendant Michael Cone, former head of Cone Constructors, who received a 15-year federal term on Friday. U.S. District Judge Susan C. Bucklew ordered that Cone, 51, begin his federal sentence after a five-year state prison sentence he's serving for defrauding the state Department of Transportation.

Cone's wife, Joanne Cone, also has pleaded guilty to participating in the bankruptcy fraud and will be sentenced in June.

Prosecutors accused Michael Cone of orchestrating a scheme to hide his company's assets after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2000. He resurrected a defunct company that he claimed his wife operated and sold Cone Constructors equipment to her, then leased it back for his own use.

All three defendants in the case pleaded guilty less than a week before they were scheduled for trial late last year. Grable was the first one to take a plea deal, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Porcelli said prompted the Cones to do the same, because Michael Cone knew that Grable would testify against him.

The judge said Grable should have pleaded guilty sooner.

"I'm puzzled why it took so long," Bucklew said. "I never, never understood that."

Grable said she didn't trust the advice from her public defender and waited to take a deal until she could afford to hire a private attorney.

"My ignorance of the federal judicial system made me wait until I had somebody I had confidence in," Grable said.

"Well, that's too bad. Too bad for you," Bucklew said, adding that the public defender was right in her advice and had Grable listened, she might have been facing less time in prison.

-Kevin Graham, Times staff writer