Rochester, N.Y. - Three men were sentenced Friday morning for admitting to rigging contract bids for Monroe County involving hundreds of millions of tax dollars.

John Maggio, Nelson Rivera and Daniel Lynch all admitted to giving local development corporations (LDC's) advantages in Monroe County contract bids.



One contract involved about $212 million in taxpayer money. Wiesner said he helped Lynch and Lynch's company, Navitech, gain an advantage by discussing the proposals for the contract before it was released to the public.

The deals took place between March 2008 and October 2013.

Back in January, a fourth defendant, Robert Wiesner, . Wiesner is the husband of former Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks.

Wiesner paid a fine of $5,000 and forfeited $3,000. Wiesner was also sentenced by Judge Dennis Kehoe to a three-year conditional discharge. The discharge means as long as Wiesner remains out of legal trouble through 2019, he will not serve any jail time.

Maggio also took a plea deal in November 2015. On Friday, Maggio was sentenced to 200 hours of community service and must pay $350,000 . Half of the funds will go to the New York Attorney General's Office and the other $175,000 will go to Monroe County.

In February, Nelson Rivera, a former county official, admitted he gave inside information to the owner of a company which gave that company a competitive advantage in snagging two county contracts. He pleaded guilty to two of the six felony counts against him.

Rivera could have served 1 1/3-4 years in prison on each charge. He was sentenced to 5 years probation and also forfeited his state pension, as well as personal cash contributions he put into that pension. This totaled $36,241.26 after mandatory withholdings. Rivera paid an additional $25,000 fine to New York State.

Rivera will also never be allowed to serve as a New York state public employee again.



Lynch pleaded guilty to two counts of felony grand larceny and two counts of combination in restraint of trade and competition in violation of General Business Law. He originally faced 18 criminal counts.



As agreed in his plea deal, Lynch was sentenced to 2 1/3-7 years in state prison and must pay Monroe County $600,083.70 in restitution.

Before he was sentenced Lynch apologized to the court and the community. "I'm guilty, I'm guilty of many things, I'm absolutely ready to take responsibility for my actions," said Lynch. "I'm humbled and a little broken down and I'm very sorry sir. I want to apologize to this court, I want to apologize to the citizens of Monroe County."

"There has to be one set of rules for everyone, no matter how rich or how powerful, and that includes political insiders," said Attorney General Schneiderman. "The politically connected shouldn't be given the inside track to unfairly obtain lucrative government contracts, and I will continue to fight this kind of corruption whenever and wherever I find it."



Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo released the following statement, saying this comes as she continues to work towards the dissolution of the LDC's that was the subject of today's court proceedings.

"Today brings to a close a sad past chapter of County government and the criminal aspect of the LDC matter. Prior to today's proceedings, the County had requested that restitution from the defendants be returned to the County. I thank Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Assistant Attorney General Mary Gorman and Judge Dennis Kehoe for agreeing to return $552,000 to the taxpayers of Monroe County, which was received today."

Monroe County Legislature minority leader Cindy Kaleh released a statement as well.

"To many the sentences will seem light given the severity of the crimes. Let these crimes stand as a reminder that elected officials need to remain vigilant to ensure an open and ethical government. The public's trust was not just violated, it was robbed."

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