Robert R. Dattilo also must make restitution to the municipalities, agencies and other customers that were cheated.
TRENTON -- A part-owner of a Linden commercial and industrial supply company who admitted cheating municipalities, schools and public agencies out of hundreds of thousands of dollars will spend four years in federal prison, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.
Robert R. Dattilo, 61, who pleaded guilty in February to a count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan in federal court.
According to court records, Dattilo, part owner of Bayway Lumber, conspired with others to overbill, charge for more expensive items or larger quantities of items and charge back the cost of gifts to customers' employees through fraudulent billing from 2007 through November, 2015.
Bayway Lumber inflated the prices on items sold or intentionally failed to provide the prices set in contractual agreements in a number of ways, prosecutors said. With Rutgers University and University Hospital, Bayway altered vendor invoices to bill higher mark-ups, they said.
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Bayway intentionally failed to apply discounts negotiated with the city of Elizabeth, prosecutors said.
In the case of the New York Transit Authority, Bayway billed for the most expensive items, such as doors, frames and hardware, but supplied less-expensive substitutes, Fishman's office said.
And for the Philadelphia Housing Authority, Con Edison, the New York Department of Corrections and the city of Newark, Bayway provided low-quality "reject" lumber that was not construction grade quality, it said. Dattilo directed employees to hide markings on the lumber and issued false invoices stating that the lumber was higher quality, it said.
Further, Fishman's office said employees of Bayway customers, including Amtrak, the Plainfield Board of Education and an unidentified Bergen County company received gifts, including electronics and tickets, and then overbilled those agencies to cover the cost of the gifts.
In total, the losses to the customers was $708,386, it said.
Dattilo was sentenced to three years of supervised release in addition to the prison term, and was ordered to pay restitution to the customers that overpaid, it said. He also was ordered to pay a fine of $2,000, Fishman's office said.
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