NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A former Metro-North Railroad contract manager was sentenced Tuesday to one to three years in state prison for tampering with a bidding process to award jobs to a Suffolk County-based contractor while taking over $70,000 in kickbacks, the Manhattan D.A.'s office said.
James Berlangero improperly assisted co-defendant Michael Rodgers, who co-owned WRS Environmental Services, in obtaining contracts in exchange for various kickbacks while in his role at the Procurement and Material Management Department of the Metro-North, according to court records and as admitted in Berlangero's guilty plea.
Berlangero, 64, acted in concert with Rodgers and WRS to undermine free competition on multiple request-for-proposals and contract awards by disclosing confidential Metro-North information to Rodgers.
In one instance, Berlangero assisted WRS in obtaining a transport sub-contract on a Metro-North contract pertaining to Hurricane Sandy damage repair in 2015, even though the company was not initially approved to receive transport contracts at that time. In another example two years later, he gave WRS confidential information about a job that involved removing asbestos at Grand Central Terminal so that the company could tailor its application and undercut two existing remediation contractors.
In return for Berlangero's assistance, Rodgers made a variety of check and cash payments to Berlangero totaling more than $50,000, prosecutors said.
Rodgers wrote checks totaling more than $32,000 to pay Berlangero's residential mortgage and wrote checks directly to Berlangero that totaled more than $14,000. He also deposited more than $8,000 in cash into Berlangero's credit union account.
In addition, Rodgers and WRS also gave $10,000 to Berlangero's brother-in-law for an auto-racing sponsorship facilitated by Berlangero. Prosecutors said Rodgers arranged for WRS employees to help perform a variety of services at Berlangero's home, including cleaning and removing items from his basement, performing soil test sampling services prior to the sale of the home and helping him move after the house was sold.
Lastly, Berlangero's obtained a job for his daughter at WRS and sought a job for his son.
Berlangero previously pleaded guilty in New York State Supreme Court to one count of first-degree corrupting the government, one count of second-degree bribe receiving and two counts of contracts and agreements for monopoly and restraint of trade.
"This former Metro-North contract manager misused taxpayer dollars and railroaded a contracting process that should have been decided based on free competition," said District Attorney Bragg. "All of the actors in this scheme are being held accountable thanks to this inter-agency effort. I am grateful to the Office of the MTA Inspector General and the prosecutors of my Office's Rackets Bureau for ending this scheme, which led to the misappropriation of contracts valued at more than $10 million."
Thomas Willis, the director of business development at WRS, was found guilty on two counts of contracts and agreements for monopoly and in restraint of trade for his role in the fraud and was sentenced to probation in February 2022. He acknowledged working with Berlangero and Rodgers to gain an unfair competitive advantage for WRS in relation to the two contracts that WRS was awarded by using confidential Metro-North information that Berlangero provided.
Rodgers pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree bribery and two counts of contracts and agreements for monopoly and in restraint of trade in December 2021 and is awaiting sentencing. As part of his guilty plea, Rodgers admitted that he gave Berlangero more than $50,000 in benefits. A part of his plea agreement includes selling WRS.
