Buffalo Man Sentenced for Defrauding Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program

BUFFALO, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Oscar E. Rayford, 72, of Buffalo, New York, who was convicted of mail fraud, was sentenced to home detention for eight months, one year of probation, and fined $7,500.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward H. White, who handled the case, stated that from 2001 through 2007, the defendant made numerous fraudulent written representations to the New York State Department of Transportation that his company, Rayford Enterprises, Inc., was a bona fide Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) that manufactures concrete. Rayford claimed to have performed all of the concrete work on five separate highway construction projects in the Western District of New York. In truth, Rayford had entered into an agreement with representatives from a non-DBE manufacturer of ready-mix concrete, whereby the non-DBE performed all of the concrete work on the five highway construction projects. Despite not having performed any construction work, Rayford thereafter kept a percentage of the payments for himself. The defendant forfeited $1.8 million as fraudulent proceeds from the scheme.

The sentencing is the culmination of an investigation on the part of the United States Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General, New York Office Region 2, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Ned E. Schwartz, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Christopher M. Piehota.