(Source: USAO, NJ) NEWARK, N.J. – A compliance officer with the Union City Community Development Agency (UCCDA) today admitted that he manipulated the contractor selection process for federally funded residential rehabilitation and sidewalk replacement projects, causing losses of $40,000 to $95,000, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Washington Borgono, 65, of North Bergen, New Jersey, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William H. Walls in Newark federal court to Count Two of an indictment charging him with obtaining by fraud, converting and misapplying government funds provided by the UCCDA.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Between April 2007 and February 2013, Borgono was a compliance officer at the UCCDA, a local government agency that received grant funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Among the programs that the UCCDA operated through this HUD funding were a residential rehabilitation program and a sidewalk replacement program.

From 2007 through 2013, Borgono manipulated the contractor selection process for HUD-funded residential rehabilitation and sidewalk replacement projects through false and misleading bids. Borgono instructed certain contractors, such as Leovaldo Fundora, a contractor in Guttenberg, New Jersey, to obtain and submit higher, phony bids from other contractors in order to improperly award residential rehabilitation and sidewalk replacement projects to the contractors of Borgono’s choice. Borgono also instructed certain contractors, such as Joseph Lado, of Fort Lee, New Jersey, to bid under a certain specified amount on residential rehabilitation and sidewalk replacement projects, to ensure those contractors obtained those projects...