New York v. James Berlangero et al., No. 03958-2019

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People of the State of New York v. Christopher Chierchio and Anthony Milohnic, Ind. No. 769-2018 (N.Y. Cty. Mar. 27, 2018)

Defendants allegedly colluded to ensure a lack of competition for the plumbing, sprinkler, and HVAC bids for a new luxury residential building at 613 Baltic Street in Brooklyn.

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People of New York v. Christopher Kline

Employee of Bert Adams Disposal pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Donnelly Act. According to the indictment, from about July 2014 until May 2016, the company entered into collusive agreements with Taylor Garbage Service to rig bids for waste-hauling, recycling, and related services, and forced customers to pay excessive prices for basic services. The companies conspired through in-person meetings, phone calls, and text messages.According to the plea agreement, over this two-year period, the companies exchanged hundreds of text messages and calls. Their arrangements included, among other methods, the companies agreeing to not pursue the business of each other’s current customers and deciding in advance which company would win a bid,
and agreeing. to submit a deliberately inflated bid or price quote – or not to submit a bid at all – to a customer to ensure the incumbent company would keep the contract. CEO and other employee of the company also pled guilty and paid an additional $117,500 in criminal fines, and company paid $850,000. See also, People v. Bert Adams Disposal, People v. Elbert Adams, People v. Bert J. Adams

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People of New York v. Bert J. Adams

Employee of Bert Adams Disposal pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Donnelly Act. According to the indictment, from about July 2014 until May 2016, the company entered into collusive agreements with Taylor Garbage Service to rig bids for waste-hauling, recycling, and related services, and forced customers to pay excessive prices for basic services. The companies conspired through in-person meetings, phone calls, and text messages.According to the plea agreement, over this two-year period, the companies exchanged hundreds of text messages and calls. Their arrangements included, among other methods, the companies agreeing to not pursue the business of each other’s current customers and deciding in advance which company would win a bid,
and agreeing. to submit a deliberately inflated bid or price quote – or not to submit a bid at all – to a customer to ensure the incumbent company would keep the contract. CEO and other employee of the company also pled guilty and paid an additional $117,500 in criminal fines, and company paid $850,000. See also, People v. Bert Adams Disposal, People v. Elbert Adams, People v. Christopher Kline.

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People of New York v. Elbert Adams

CEO of Bert Adams Disposal pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Donnelly Act. According to the indictment, from about July 2014 until May 2016, the company entered into collusive agreements with Taylor Garbage Service to rig bids for waste-hauling, recycling, and related services, and forced customers to pay excessive prices for basic services. The companies conspired through in-person meetings, phone calls, and text messages.According to the plea agreement, over this two-year period, the companies exchanged hundreds of text messages and calls. Their arrangements included, among other methods, the companies agreeing to not pursue the business of each other’s current customers and deciding in advance which company would win a bid,
and agreeing. to submit a deliberately inflated bid or price quote – or not to submit a bid at all – to a customer to ensure the incumbent company would keep the contract. Other employees of the company also pled guilty and paid an additional $75,000 in criminal fines, and company paid $850,000. See also, People v. Bert Adams Disposal, People v. Bert J. Adams, People v. Christopher Kline.

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People of New York v. Bert Adams Disposal

Company pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Donnelly Act. According to the indictment, from about July 2014 until May 2016, the company entered into collusive agreements with Taylor Garbage Service to rig bids for waste-hauling, recycling, and related services, and forced customers to pay excessive prices for basic services. The companies conspired through in-person meetings, phone calls, and text messages. According to the plea agreement, over this two-year period, the companies exchanged hundreds of text messages and calls. Their arrangements included, among other methods, the companies agreeing to not pursue the business of each other’s current customers and deciding in advance which company would win a bid, and agreeing to submit a deliberately inflated bid or price quote, or not to submit a bid at all, to a customer to ensure the incumbent company would keep the contract. The CEO and employees of the company also pled guilty and paid an additional $150,000 in criminal fines. See also, People v. Bert Adams, People v. Elbert Adams, People v. Christopher Kline.

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People v. Denise Arboleda, New York

In the course of a bid-rigging investigation, Denise Arboledo withheld documents relevant to the investigation from the attorney general’s office. This is a misdemeanor violation of New York State General Business Law sec. 343.

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Commonwealth v. Czop

Defendant engaged in criminal conduct in obtaining and executing several consultant inspection contracts with District 6 of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Transportation.Testimony before the grand jury showed Czop took steps to cultivate a relationship with District 6’s Assistant District Engineer (ADE). The evidence showed that Czop entered into an agreement with a close personal friend of the ADE, which was purportedly a consulting contract. In reality, however, the agreement was simply a method to secure contracts from the ADE, the grand jury presentment alleged. All told, CZOP Specter, Inc. and a related minority business sent more than $130,000 to the ADE’s friend, which, in turn, resulted in Czop being awarded at least four separate PennDOT consultant contracts, the grand jury presentment alleged. The grand jury presentment also details how Czop eventually developed his relationship with the ADE to the point where Czop was purportedly assisting in drafting a potential bridge cleaning inspection contract. Testimony before the grand jury alleged that it was known CZOP Specter, Inc. would be awarded this contract several months prior to it even being advertised. Czop was in fact awarded the contract in the summer of 2011.

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State v. Armstrong, No. 09-01-00012 (Grand Jury No. 563-09-26-S (N.J. Super. Ct. Jan. 14. 2009)

Frederick J. Armstrong, a construction management specialist in the Capital Planning & Construction Unit of the Department of Corrections (DOC) assisted Kerth and three companies owned by him in submitting rigged bids to the DOC and used his influence over contracting procedures to steer contracts awarded by the department to Independent Alarm. The state’s investigation revealed that between April 1999 and December 2004, Kerth and his companies, with Armstrong’s assistance, rigged nine DOC contracts with contract prices that, in the aggregate, exceeded $230,000. Armstrong pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to commit the crimes of official misconduct, unlawful restraint of trade, theft by deception, making false representations for government contracts, and misconduct by a corporate official. Judge he was sentenced to three years in state prison and required to forfeit his job with the DOC and be permanently excluded from public employment in New Jersey. Kerth admitted that, at Armstrong’s request, he solicited other contractors to submit higher “cover” bids so Independent Alarm would win a 2003 contract with the Department of Corrections for $39,600 to install closed-circuit television components at Mid-State Correctional Facility. Under state law, Independent had to be the lowest qualified bidder among at least three independent bids to win the contract. Kerth further admitted that Automatic Alarm submitted a cover bid so that Independent Alarm would win a 2002 contract for $5,030 to install upgraded alarm systems in two schools in Haddon Township

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People of New York v. Kaloyeros and Nicolla

SUNY-Poly, a state university, issued RFPs for building projects. Kayoleros was president of SUNY Poly and Nicolla was a member of the Board of Directors of SUNY-Poly and Presdent of Columbia Development, a bidder on projects at SUNY Poly. According to the indictment, they manipulated the awarding of contracts to direct them to favored businesses, including Columbia, by developing language that gave a competitive advantage to some bidders and gave confidential information to those bidders,

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