PAHRUMP, Nev. (AP) — A Nevada sheriff is investigating whether customers of a rural electric utility are paying higher bills because the company paid hush money to a woman who alleged its former chief executive sexually harassed her.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports Nye County sheriff's investigators served a warrant at Valley Electric Association offices in Pahrump on Friday in an embezzlement probe.
The newspaper says former company executive Tom Husted could not be reached to comment and a current company executive who is the former editor-in-chief at the Review-Journal did not respond to telephone calls and emails.
Husted left the utility last May.
The company has since then announced a 9 percent rate hike for customers, despite promising long-term rate stability following the $200 million sale of a transmission line in 2017.