by Nick Storm@NStorm_politics –

Lexington based Democratic political consultant Samuel McIntosh was charged and admitted to paying kickbacks to former Secretary of the Kentucky Personnel Cabinet, Timothy Longmeyer in federal court on Wednesday.

The 58 year-old McIntosh pleaded guilty to four counts of bribery of a public official and one count of mail fraud before U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell on Wednesday.

According to the McIntosh’s plea agreement beginning in 2009, McIntosh worked with Longmeyer and Lawrence O’Bryan to carry out a kickback scheme. Longmeyer agreed to use his position to persuade Humana, Inc., to hire his firm MC Squared for consulting services related to the Kentucky Employees’ Health Plan, which Longmeyer oversaw.

McIntosh agreed to pay O’Bryan around half of MC Squared’s proceeds from its contracts with Humana, with the understanding that O’Bryan would then kick back a portion of those funds to Longmeyer, a press release detailing the plea explained. The kickback scheme continued through early 2014, McIntosh admitted in the pleading.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky, O’Bryan ceased participating directly in the scheme, and McIntosh began to pay Longmeyer directly.

McIntosh delivered cash and conduit campaign contributions to Longmeyer on 39 occasions between November 2014 and October 2015, a press release said. The former political consultant admitted in the pleading to making $854,701.50 in payments to Longmeyer and O’Bryan from the beginning of the scheme through October 2015.

Days after Longmeyer was charged with bribery in March of 2016, McIntosh’s Lexington-based consulting firm at the heart of a federal bribery investigation abruptly closed shop posting a sign in the window that the owner was “out of town.”

McIntosh is scheduled to be sentenced on April 11. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 for counts 1 through 4 and up to 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 for count 5.

Longmeyer, who also served as Attorney General Andy Beshear’s top deputy, is currently serving a nearly six years in prison for his role in a kickback scheme involving a the consulting firm and the Kentucky Employees’ Health Plan.