Eighty Four man sentenced for conspiracy in contract scam
An Eighty Four man who owns Century Steel Erectors was sentenced in federal court Tuesday for conspiracy to defraud the government, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer sentenced Donald R. Taylor, 78, to three years’ probation, a $30,000 fine and 300 hours of community service.
Taylor pleaded guilty Oct. 30 to conspiring with Watson L. Maloy Jr. to use Maloy’s company, WMCC Inc., as a “front” company to illegally obtain federally funded subcontracts on Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission bridge projects. As part of his guilty plea, Taylor further admitted that the U.S. Department of Transportation, through the Federal Highway Administration, required PennDOT and the PTC to implement USDOT’s disadvantaged business enterprise program, which was designed, among other things, to promote participation of minority-owned small businesses in federally funded projects.
Because CSE was not a certified DBE subcontractor, Taylor and Maloy agreed they would use WMCC as a means to obtain DBE-eligible bridge subcontracts. Contrary to DBE requirements, however, Taylor admitted that CSE employees, acting at his direction, actually identified, bid, negotiated and performed the work on DBE-eligible subcontracts.
As a means to conceal CSE’s role in handling contracts awarded to WMCC, Taylor admitted that CSE employees used a WMCC email account and phone line, used magnetic WMCC signs to cover CSE logos on CSE vehicles at job sites, possessed WMCC business cards, and held themselves out as WMCC employees in dealings with general contractors and PennDOT and PTC officials.
As a result, Taylor admitted WMCC and CSE fraudulently obtained nine PennDOT subcontracts between approximately January 2012 and February 2014, resulting in payments to WMCC totaling approximately $1,065,000. In return, Taylor admitted Maloy was paid a periodic “fee,” ranging from $2,000 to $10,000, during the conspiracy.
At the time of his guilty plea, Taylor made full restitution in the amount of $85,221.21 to PennDOT.
Maloy previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, and Chief U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti sentenced him to two years of probation and a $1,000 fine Feb. 20.