Summary

On February 3, 2016, Kenneth Hardin, a former Colorado Regional Transportation District (RTD) employee, was found guilty of bribery charges after a trial in U.S. District Court, Denver, CO. Hardin was a senior manager in RTD’s Civil Rights Division, whose duties included directing regulatory compliance, investigating complaints, community outreach, program strategy development, and overseeing compliance with the U.S. DOT Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program.

In 2014, the Federal Transit Administration provided an estimated $218 million in grants to RTD. That same year, on November 5, Hardin was indicted on Federal charges alleging he solicited, demanded, and accepted four bribes totaling $5,100 with the intent to influence RTD transactions involving federally-funded contracts. At trial, a Federal jury found Hardin guilty on three of the four bribery counts.

We conducted this investigation jointly with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation.