Sentencing was held Friday morning in State Supreme Court in Rochester for three men who were part of a bid-rigging conspiracy.
It involves a scheme that prosecutors say illegally diverted massive county contracts to companies that were created mainly to handle the work of Local Development Corporations.
Businessman Daniel Lynch was sentenced to 2 1/3 to 7 years in prison for his guilty plea to grand larceny and two antitrust crimes. He will also have to pay $600,000 in restitution.
Lynch, who is the only defendant that will serve prison time, issued an emotional apology in court.
"I'm very sorry, sir. I'm sorry. I want to apologize to this court, I want to apologize to the citizens of Monroe County. I want to apologize, sincerely, to the other families that might have been affected by my actions."
Former county information manager Nelson Rivera was sentenced to five years probation and agreed to pay a $61,000 fine.
Another defendant, local accountant John Maggio, was allowed to change his plea during the hearing, reducing his charges to a misdemeanor as opposed to a felony. Maggio was sentenced to one year conditional discharge, with a condition of 200 hours of community service, and will have to pay $350,000 in restitution.
A fourth defendant, Robert Wiesner, was sentenced to three years of conditional discharge when he pleaded guilty to a single count of bid rigging in January. He is the husband of former Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks.
The court denied the county's request for more than $12 million in restitution, but the county can still go after the defendants in civil court.
Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo issued a statement saying that she continues to work toward the dissolution of Local Development Corporations. Dinfolfo has proposed legislation to the state legislature that would permit the county to re-finance LDC debt. If that happens, she says Monroe County would save more than $4.3 million.
Dinolfo says unrelated to Friday’s court proceedings, the county has concluded that dissolving another LDC, Monroe Newpower, would save an additional $8.1 million.
And Dinolfo says it’s anticipated there would be savings of an additional $6.8 million with the dissolution of the LDC’s.
Dinolfo says that Friday’s court proceedings, “brings to a close a sad past chapter of county government and the criminal aspect of the LDC matter.” She says the county had requested restitution from the defendants, and thanked the judge and state officials for agreeing to return $552,000 to county taxpayers.
Monroe County Democratic Legislative Minority Leader Cindy Kaleh issued a statement saying that, "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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