Danville Men Charged With Trying To Defraud TN Utility Of $300K

DANVILLE, CA — Two Danville men who ran a local software company were charged this month with conspiring to defraud a Tennessee electric utility of more than $300,000 through their work in a school district near Nashville.

Autonomic Software CEO Anthony Gigliotti, 74, and Vice President Alexander Gigliotti, 36, were arrested in Danville by the U.S. Marshals Service Sept. 10 and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. The charges were unsealed last week.

Anthony Gigliotti was also charged with three counts each of mail fraud and wire fraud.

Alexander Gigliotti pleaded not guilty; Anthony Gigliotti had not entered a plea as of Thursday morning. Both men were released from custody Sept. 13.

Alexander Gigliotti's attorney, Brian Getz, said in an email that his client is a role model who "never in his life committed a crime, especially here."

Anthony Gigliotti's attorney, Lawrence Arnkoff, declined to comment during the pending case, citing court rules.

The men face up to 20 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said.

The charges date back to work Autonomic performed in 2016 for Tennessee schools in Rutherford County on behalf of the electric utility Tennessee Valley Authority.

Autonomic agreed to install power management software at schools as part of an energy- and cost-saving incentive program through the utility.

The utility required participants to pay part of the costs associated with software installation.

Autonomic told the Rutherford County School District that it would not face any costs, prosecutors said. But when Autonomic billed incentive program administrator Lockheed Martin on the district's behalf, the company reported that costs were incurred at each campus: $22 per computer in software costs and $8 per computer in support costs, prosecutors said.

In all, Autonomic's 47 invoices totaled nearly $590,000.

The software didn't even work right, prosecutors said. The district purchased much less expensive energy-saving software from another company a year later.

Anthony Gigliotti is also accused of lying to the electric utility and saying Alexander Gigliotti was not involved in the project, despite the fact that he emailed Lockheed Martin to ask for the incentive payments, prosecutors said.