PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia has charged a contractor on the 30th Street Station restoration project with bribing an Amtrak official in exchange for $52 million in excess payments to the contractor’s company.
Federal prosecutors allege Khaled Dallo, an official for the company that restored the station’s facade, lavished more than $300,000 worth of gifts, meals, concerts, overseas vacations and other favors on an Amtrak employee. In return, the Amtrak employee approved change orders that nearly doubled the company’s contract, according to the charging document.
By the end of the four-year project, which started in 2016, Dallo’s company had charged $52 million more than the original contract.
At one point, prosecutors say, a company official bought the Amtrak employee a $5,000 watch, but the employee was unsatisfied. He gave it back and received an $11,000 watch.
Company officials, though, were happy. “Dinner was worth it,” they said in one email, relaying approval for a $5 million change order.
Dallo is charged by information, which sometimes signals that the defendant is cooperating. The company itself and three other company officials are not named in the information, but the Chicago Tribune in 2021 identified the company as MARK1 Restoration in Chicago. The Tribune also identified the Amtrak employee as Ajith Bhaskaran of Cherry Hill, who died of natural causes in 2020.
A person who answered the phone at MARK1 told KYW Newsradio he knew nothing about the case.