Former Operations Manager of a Transfer and Recycling Station in Plainfield Pleads Guilty to Corruption Charge

February 17, 2010 - NEWARK—A former operations manager of a transfer and recycling station in Plainfield pleaded guilty today to traveling and causing the travel in interstate commerce to promote and facilitate commercial bribery, admitting he caused an individual who hauled waste and recyclable material to travel in interstate commerce, and thereafter accepted bribe payments from that individual on numerous occasions, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Michael A. Mongelli, 52, of New Hyde Park, New York., pleaded guilty to a one-count Information charging a violation of the Travel Act before U.S. District Senior Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise. Seibel is free on a $50,000 bond pending his sentencing, which is scheduled for June 7.

At his plea hearing, Mongelli admitted that, from October 2007 to February 2009, he repeatedly accepted cash payments from an individual who was contracted to transport recyclable material and waste from the transfer station where Mongelli was employed to an incineration facility in Pennsylvania. Mongelli stated that the amount of payments started at approximately $20 per load transported and graduated to approximately $100 per load. In exchange for these payments, Mongelli admitted that he ensured that the individual continued to receive hauling business from the transfer station where Mongelli was employed. In total, Mongelli admitted that he received in excess of $30,000 in cash payments from the individual during the aforementioned period.

The charge to which Mongelli pleaded guilty carries a maximum statutory penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In determining an actual sentence, Judge Debevoise will consult the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges that take into account the severity and characteristics of the offense, the defendant’s criminal history, if any, and other factors, including acceptance of responsibility. The judge has wide discretion and is not bound by those guidelines in determining a sentence.

Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all of that time.

Fishman credited Special Agents of the FBI, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Kevin B. Cruise, for the investigation.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Gramiccioni of the Office’s Special Prosecutions Division.