Commercial Trash Hauler Sentenced to Three Years in Federal Prison for Bribe Scheme |
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U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of Maryland
24 August 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis sentenced, John Howard Brady, age 74, of Glen Burnie, to three years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy and two counts of bribery in connection with a scheme in which Brady and other commercial haulers paid City of Baltimore Department of Public Works (DPW) employees cash in return for allowing the haulers to deposit trash at the Quarantine Road Landfill (Landfill) without paying the required disposal fees. Brady was convicted on November 20, 2015, after a five day trial. Judge Garbis also ordered that Brady pay restitution, with the exact amount to be determined at a later date.
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Kevin Perkins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Robert H. Pearre, Jr., Inspector General, City of Baltimore Office of Inspector General; Special Agent in Charge Thomas Jankowski of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, Washington, D.C. Field Office; and Colonel William M. Pallozzi, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police.
The DPW’s Bureau of Solid Waste is responsible for managing Baltimore City’s waste management services, including overseeing citizen drop-off centers, such as the NWTS and the Landfill. Baltimore City residents can deposit small amounts of trash and/or recyclables in dumpsters located near the main entrance of the Landfill, free of charge. Individuals or companies commercially hauling trash that have registered their vehicles with the City must obtain Landfill permits. Commercial haulers of trash must also pay a waste disposal fee of $67.50 per ton of trash deposited at the Landfill. DPW employees assigned as scale house operators weigh each truck as it enters the Landfill, which is recorded on a computerized point-of-sale system. The scale house operators reweigh each truck as it leaves the Landfill. The net weight of the deposited trash and the required disposal fee is then calculated and printed on a receipt that is handed to the driver.
According to the evidence presented at Brady’s trial, Brady was a commercial trash hauler who owned and operated Brady’s Roll Off Service. Beginning in approximately 2002, Brady agreed to pay bribes to the DPW scale house operators, including Tamara Washington and William Nemec. In exchange, the scale house operators did not charge Brady a disposal fee for using the Landfill. For example, on March 30, 2015, Brady paid a $2,000 cash bribe to Tamara Washington, which represented about 20 trips to the landfill when Brady was allowed to dump for free. The bribes paid to the scale house operators saved Brady thousands of fees each month. Brady either paid the operator through the outbound window at the scale house, or met the operators at an off-site location where he would pay a week’s worth of bribes or more. Evidence at trial established that Brady’s company used the landfill dozens of times a year since 2002, resulting in a loss of more than $1,000,000 in disposal fees for the City of Baltimore.
Former Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW) employees William Charles Nemec, Sr., age 56, and Tamara Oliver Washington age 56, both of Baltimore, pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme and were sentenced to 78 months to 18 months in prison, respectively. Judge Garbis also entered orders requiring Nemec and Washington to pay restitution of $6 million. A total of six Baltimore Department of Public Works (DPW) employees and six commercial trash haulers, including Brady, Nemec, and Washington, have been convicted in federal court for this scheme, and/or a second scheme in which DPW employees stole scrap metal from the Landfill for personal gain.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the FBI, IRS-CI, Baltimore Office of Inspector General, and Maryland State Police for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorney Martin J. Clarke and Leo J. Wise, who prosecuted the case.