Shelton Developer Sentenced to Prison for Making False Statement to FBI Agents
| U.S. Attorney’s Office April 06, 2011 |
The United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut announced that ROBERT SCINTO, 64, of Fairfield, was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Charles S. Haight in New Haven to six months of imprisonment, followed by two years of supervised release, for making a false statement to FBI agents during the course of a public corruption investigation in Shelton, Connecticut. Judge Haight also ordered SCINTO to spend the first six months of his supervised release in home confinement with electronic monitoring, and to pay a fine in the amount of $50,000.
According to court documents and statements made in court, from at least as early as 1999 through 2008, SCINTO, a builder and property developer in Shelton, provided cash and items of value to a building official (identified as “Building Official #1”), an elected public official (identified as “Public Official #1”) and other City of Shelton employees. These items included, but were not limited to, providing cash to Building Official #1 when the building official was issuing certificates of occupancy relating to SCINTO’s development projects; providing $2,500 in cash to Building Official #1 in May 2008, when the building official requested a “loan”; paying for a service related to Public Official # 1’s business; and providing $500 in cash to Public Official #1 after Public Official #1 gave SCINTO a $500 check for the use of SCINTO’s Colorado vacation home.
On June 18, 2008, FBI agents interviewed SCINTO in Shelton. During that interview, SCINTO falsely advised FBI agents that he had never provided anything beyond Christmas presents and certain other identified items of value to City of Shelton officials.
SCINTO pleaded guilty to the offense on October 21, 2010.
This matter is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel Richard J. Schechter and Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Kale.