Watershed contractor ducks lengthy prison term for kickback scheme | Office of Inspector General, Department of Housing and Urban Development

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Date Published

October 26, 2016

News Type

Article

Link to Original

nj.com

(Source: nj.com) NEWARK — A federal judge Monday sentenced a former contractor for the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corp. to six months in prison for his role in a kickback scheme, much less time behind bars than sentencing guidelines recommended he should serve.

Giacomo "Jack" DeRosa, 68, previously had pleaded guilty in January in the U.S. District Court in Newark to a charge of laundering $85,000 in kickbacks to the non-profit corporation's special projects manager, Donald Bernard Sr.

Prosecutors have said DeRosa's East Orange company, Essex Home Improvement Corp., was among those that received inflated contracts in exchange for the kickbacks, taking in more than $350,000 in payments from the watershed between 2008 and 2013...