Three San Antonio family members — one of them a former Fiesta Rey Feo — who pleaded guilty to rigging multimillion-dollar government contracts will pay millions in civil penalties as part of a settlement reached with federal officials.
Kenneth Flores, Irma Flores and Christopher Flores pleaded guilty in 2023 to criminal fraud and gratuities charges. A federal indictment alleged that the family members eliminated competition and fixed contract awards and prices on Army contracts for janitorial services at military hospitals. They were sentenced in 2024.
Federal officials filed a lawsuit against the Flores family members and KDHK Inc., Kenneth Flores’ company, in federal court in San Antonio.
The family members agreed to collectively pay $2.5 million in civil penalties under the False Claims Act, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.
Kenneth Flores and Irma will jointly pay the federal government $2 million and Christopher Flores will pay $500,000, according to the agreement. Irma Flores is the mother of Christopher Flores and Kenneth Flores.
The three Flores family members admitted to paying bribes to two Army civilian workers — John “Chip” Mathes and Karissa Kelley — for illegal acts that benefited their businesses. Federal officials previously imposed $547,613.92 in civil penalties against the two federal employees.
Prosecutors also said Ken Flores and Kelley were involved in a sexual relationship.
As part of the scheme, a contract for $59.5 million was awarded in 2014 to Helping Hands Inc. of San Antonio, which was led by Antonio Flores, Irma Flores’ husband and father of Ken and Christipher Flores.
An $83.6 million contract was awarded in 2018 to another maintenance business, Allegiance Environmental Services, that was run by Kenneth Flores.
Irma Flores was chief financial officer of Helping Hands Inc. and bookkeeper for Allegiance Environmental Services.
Christopher Flores was vice president of Helping Hands Inc. and ran another business called Alliance Supply, which was used to funnel kickbacks to Mathes and Kelley, according to federal officials.
Kenneth Flores was sentenced to four years in prison, Christopher Flores was sentenced to two years and Irma Flores was sentenced to five years probation.
In 2018, Kenneth Flores was crowned Rey Feo as part of Fiesta celebrations. Also known as Fiesta’s “People’s King,” the Rey Feo is elected annually by members of the Rey Feo Consejo Educational Scholarship Foundation, which supports the Rey Feo Scholarship Program.
In 2003, Irma Flores became the first Hispanic woman to serve as president of the Fiesta San Antonio Commission.