A California business owner accused of bribing former state Rep. Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of conspiring to commit bribery of a state official.

The plea was announced by officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

G. Ford Gilbert, 71, of Carmichael, California, will be sentenced at a hearing in U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson’s court, though a date has not been set. He faces a statutory maximum penalty of five years in prison, a fine of not more than $250,000 and up to three years of supervised release.

According to court documents, when he committed his offense, Gilbert was the owner of a California-based company, Trina Health LLC. At outpatient clinics, Trina Health provided a form of diabetes treatment known as the “Artificial Pancreas Treatment.”

In 2014 and 2015, Trina Health and associated business entities opened clinics in Foley, Fairhope and Hoover. Hammon, who was House majority leader at the time, was a part-owner of the Hoover clinic.

Shortly after the Foley and Fairhope clinics opened and just before the Hoover clinic began operations, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama informed Trina Health that it would not cover the treatments provided at these clinics.

According to a release about Gilbert’s plea, he tried unsuccessfully throughout 2015 to persuade the health insurance company to reconsider. In early 2016, he developed a scheme to force the insurer to change its position.

Specifically, the release said, he came up with a plan to push a bill through the Alabama Legislature’s 2016 session, which — had it passed — would have required the health insurer to cover Trina Health’s Artificial Pancreas Treatments.

Gilbert looked to Hammon to assist in the passage of the bill. Hammon, however, had sold his ownership interest in the Hoover clinic.

He told Gilbert it would create an appearance of impropriety for him to publicly support the legislation, but was willing to use his influence in the House of Representatives to quietly generate support for the bill. To persuade Hammon to do this, the release said, Gilbert paid Hammon $2,000 in April 2016. Thereafter, Hammon arranged for various other legislators to speak in support of the Trina Health-supported legislation at a public hearing. Despite Hammon’s efforts, the bill did not advance out of committee.

“Mr. Gilbert thought that it would take only a small payment to turn the Alabama House of Representatives into a tool for solving his own business problems,” said U.S. Attorney Louis Franklin Sr. “Fortunately, Gilbert was not successful in persuading the legislature to pass this tainted bill.”

Hammon, who pleaded guilty in September 2017 to a charge of converting campaign funds for personal use, was sentenced to 90 days in prison and was ordered to pay $50,657 in restitution. He was released from federal prison in June after completing his sentence.

First elected in 2002, Hammon served more than seven years as House majority leader. He was a member of Limestone County’s eight-man legislative delegation. His seat is now held by Parker Duncan Moore, a political newcomer.