Former Security Director of Monroe County Water Authority Pleads Guilty to $212 million Bid-Rigging; gets $5,000 fine, no jail time
ROCHESTER – Robert Wiesner, the former Security Director for the Monroe County Water Authority, entered a guilty plea before The Honorable Dennis M. Kehoe in Monroe County Court to the class “E” felony charge of Combination in Restraint of Trade and Competition in violation of General Business Law §§ 340 and 341, also known as a violation of New York State’s Donnelly Act.
Wiesner was indicted in November 2013 along with Daniel Lynch and John Maggio, local businessmen, and Nelson Rivera, a former Monroe County public official. The men were charged with a scheme to rig the bidding process for a number of multi-million dollar public works contracts in Monroe County.
One of those contracts included a $212 million public safety contract to provide upgrades to the County’s public safety and security systems.
Wiesner admitted he acted in concert with others between March 2008 and October 2013, by entering into, engaging in, and continuing to engage in a contract, agreement, and combination to restrain competition in the bidding process of Monroe County for the $212 million public safety contract, by means of bid rigging.
As part of a plea agreement, Wiesner paid a $5,000 fine and forfeited $3,000 of illegal gain from his crime. Wiesner was sentenced by Judge Kehoe to a three-year conditional discharge.
The remaining defendants are scheduled to proceed to trial on February 23, 2016. The investigation was conducted with State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli’s Division of Investigations and Division of Local Government and School Accountability.
Weisner admitted he helped a local businessman to game the bidding process for the $212 million public contract. Wiesner, 68, made the admission as part of a plea agreement in the drawn-out and complicated local development corporation (LDC) case.
