Dive Brief:
- New York contractor Victor Coca has been sentenced to 19 months in prison for trying to bribe a fire inspector in an attempt to reduce $8.7 million in fire code fines on a building he was renovating, NJ.com reported.
- When Coca initially tried to bribe the inspector, he went to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and authorities were able to capture Coca paying the inspector approximately $7,000, NJ.com reported.
- U.S. District Judge Esther Salas did not impose what could have been a significant fine on Coca after hearing that he owes more than $750,000 in connection with his contracting business.
Dive Insight:
Coca also paid a bribe to the inspector on behalf of a friend whose building had racked up $14,500 in fines, NJ.com reported. The inspector also testified that Coca talked to him about issuing fire code fines on the properties of political opponents.
Coca's attorneys asked the court to sentence Coca to no more than 10 months of home confinement after pleading guilty last year, but Salas said the sentence needed to "send a message" that corruption will not be tolerated.
In October, a Staten Island, NY, contractor was indicted in Brooklyn Supreme Court for allegedly offering a School Construction Authority (SCA) project officer a total of $3,500 to speed up payments on a $2.5 million renovation contract. The contractor allegedly offered the SCA officer $2,000 to speed up a $163,000 payment, then $1,500 more over the next two months to expedite additional payments.