Port Executive Admits to Commercial Bribery Charges
| U.S. Attorney’s Office November 16, 2011 |
TRENTON, NJ—A maintenance director at Maher Terminals in Union County, N.J., today admitted his role in soliciting and accepting bribes to award contracts for demolition and construction projects at a container ship terminal facility, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Donald Olesky, 54, of Sayreville, N.J., pleaded guilty to an information charging him with two counts of using, and causing to be used, the mail in aid of an unlawful activity, specifically commercial bribery under New Jersey law. Olesky entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson in Trenton federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements in court:
Olesky served as the director of facility maintenance at Maher Terminals at Port Elizabeth, N.J. From 2000 through February 2007, Olesky solicited and accepted in excess of $50,000 in kickbacks from a demolition contractor in exchange for Olesky’s assistance in steering and awarding demolition contracts at Maher Terminals’ facility. In January and February 2007, Olesky accepted a $22,000 kickback from the demolition contractor for a contract that Olesky steered to that contractor in June 2006. From 2000 through January 7, 2011, Olesky solicited and accepted in excess of $50,000 in kickbacks from a general contractor in exchange for Olesky’s assistance in steering and awarding construction contracts at Maher Terminals’ facility. From November 2010 through January 2011, Olesky accepted $13,500 in kickbacks from the general contractor related to a construction contract that Olesky steered to that contractor in July 2009.
The two counts to which Olesky pleaded guilty each carry a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and fine of $250,000 or twice the gross amount of any gain that Olesky derived from the offenses. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 11, 2012.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI’s Trenton Field Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward, for the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Harvey Bartle of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Trenton.
Defense counsel: Robert Stahl Esq., Westfield, N.J.