Water District Official Accused of Theft Expected to Plead Guilty

A former general manager of a water district in central California indicted in 2022 on charges of siphoning tens of millions of dollars worth of water from a federal canal and selling it to local farmers and water districts—who has maintained his innocence—is expected to change his plea this month, according to court documents. Dennis Falaschi, 75, is charged with conspiracy, theft of government property and filing false tax returns, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California. According to court documents, beginning around 1992, Mr. Falaschi, who oversaw the Panoche Water District, allegedly exploited a leak in the Delta-Mendota Canal—part of the state’s Central Valley Project, which brings water to a portion of the San Joaquin Valley—and engineered a way to steal over $25 million in federally owned water until 2015....