Con Ed contractor sentenced to 48 months’ imprisonment for bribery, tax evasion charges
Defendant concealed, deducted bribe payments to Con Ed supervisors as business deductions on his companies’ tax returns
NEW YORK – A Queens, New York, man was sentenced to four years in prison for federal bribery and tax evasion charges Tuesday following a multi-agency investigation, which included U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Rodolfo Quiambao, the former President and CEO of the engineering and electrical design firm Rudell & Associates, Inc. (Rudell), was sentenced for his role in a scheme to pay bribes and kickbacks to supervisors at Consolidated Edison of New York (Con Ed) in exchange for receiving lucrative contracts and other benefits from the public utility services provider. Quiambao was also sentenced to pay a $125,000 fine and more than $4.5 million in restitution to the IRS. At the time of his guilty plea in March 2016, Quiambao agreed to forfeit $1 million in criminal proceeds.
Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; James D. Robnett, Special Agent-in-Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), New York; Michael Nestor, Inspector General, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Office of the Inspector General; and Angel M. Melendez, Special Agent in Charge, HSI New York, announced the sentence.
According to court filings and facts presented during court proceedings, starting in approximately 2000, Quiambao surreptitiously and regularly gave Con Ed supervisors hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and checks in exchange for securing work, including lucrative “sole source” contracts, for his company. Quiambao also engaged in tax evasion by first concealing and then deducting the bribe payments he paid to the Con Ed supervisors as business deductions on his companies’ tax returns.
Quiambao’s sentencing was the latest step in the government’s investigation of bribery and kickback schemes involving employees and contractors of Con Ed. Since 2008, 13 Con Ed supervisors and employees and three Con Ed contractors have been convicted.
The government’s case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Public Integrity Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Paul Tuchmann and Claire S. Kedeshian are in charge of the prosecution.
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