NEW YORK — A former Metro-North official has been sentenced to at least a year in prison in a kickback scheme, amNY.com reports.
James Berlangero, 64, was a contract manager at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority commuter railroad. He received $70,000 from Long Island firm WRS Environmental Services for providing the company with inside information and other advantages on contracts up for bid, leading the company to receive more than $10 million in contracts, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
“This former Metro-North contract manager misused taxpayer dollars and railroaded a contracting process that should have been decided based on free competition,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.
The scheme dated to 2015, when Berlangero intervened in a bidding process he was managing for a $4 million waste disposal contract.
