W. David Stoffregen, 53, of Towson, Maryland, the former president and chief executive officer of the Poole and Kent Corporation (P&K), pleaded guilty today to racketeering conspiracy, mail fraud and filing a false tax return, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.
Corruption Scheme Involving State Senator
According to the statement of facts presented at this week’s guilty plea, during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Stoffregen provided various benefits to a then Maryland state senator, Thomas L. Bromwell, Sr., in exchange for the senator’s agreement to use his influence and official position to assist Stoffregen and his company, P&K. Those benefits included the following:
In 1999, Stoffregen awarded a $1.3 million subcontract for security work at the Juvenile Justice Center in Baltimore to Network Technologies Group (NTG). Stoffregen would not have awarded that subcontract to NTG, but for the fact that the senator had a sales position with the company.
In 2000 to 2001 Stoffregen provided construction work valued at more than $85,000 on a new house the senator built in Baltimore County with the expectation that the senator would not be billed for most of the work. Under Stoffregen’s direction, David M. Jackman, a P&K project manager, posted the construction costs to a University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) project. Subsequently, Jackman prepared an invoice for $19,476 to the senator in order to create a record in the event that the relationship between Stoffregen and the senator and the work on the house was ever questioned. It was only after learning in the fall of 2002 that the FBI was investigating the senator that Stoffregen directed that a second invoice be prepared in an effort to conceal the fact that P&K had done work for free or at a reduced cost.
In the fall of 2000, Stoffregen told the senator that he would pay him approximately $80,000 annually to remain in his Senate office rather than leave the Senate to work in the private sector. Between January 2001 and May 30, 2003, Stoffregen paid the senator a total of $192,923 disguised as salary payments to the senator’s wife, Mary Patricia Bromwell, for a no-show job at Namco Services, Inc.(Namco).
Stoffregen also provided the senator with a 15% interest in International Partners Construction LLC (IPC), a company Stoffregen formed in order to do construction work in Russia. He attempted to conceal the senator’s connection with the company by intentionally omitting any mention of the senator as a founder or member of the company in grant applications and other documents.
Stoffregen admits that in exchange for these benefits, the senator used his influence to: expedite monthly payments from the Maryland Comptroller’s Office to P&K for work performed on the Juvenile Justice Center project in order for Stoffregen to be eligible for bonuses; help Stoffregen and P&K win a multi-million dollar bid over a competitor with a lower bid to perform the mechanical subcontract on the UMMS Weinberg Building in downtown Baltimore, pursuant to which contract P&K realized a profit of about $1.8 million; and intervene in various business disputes on P&K’s behalf, including contract disputes with UMMS involving significant sums.
Minority Contracting Fraud Scheme
According to the statement of facts, Stoffregen participated in a minority “front” company fraud scheme with Michael Forti, his wife Geraldine Forti and the senator’s wife.&n