VDOT Official Sentenced In $11M Kickback Scheme

ALEXANDRIA, VA – A former top VDOT official in Northern Virginia was sentenced Friday to seven years in federal prison for a kickback scheme involving snow removal contracts. Anthony Willie, 55, of Culpeper, Va., had been the superintendent of the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Burke Area headquarters.

Willie and another supervisor in the Burke office, Kenneth Duane Adams, 42, of Fairfax, took cash bribes in exchange for awarding about $11 million in snow plowing contracts to several local trucking companies, according to court records.

Several truck owners and operators agreed to pay Willie and Adams a flat fee or a percentage of their snow removal contracts, say federal prosecutors. The two VDOT officials received about $440,000 in bribes from 2012 until they were caught last year.

Willie and Adams collected the cash bribes from snow plow contractors at local restaurants, grocery stores and parking lots in Burke and Fairfax.

They both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services mail and wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Adams also pleaded guilty to cocaine distribution charges; a search of his home in 2015 turned up 129 grams of cocaine, say court documents.

Several contractors involved in the scheme also pleaded guilty to mail and wire fraud charges. They include:

• John Williamson, 51, of Springfield, sentenced to 90 days;
• Rolando Pineda Moran, 46, of Alexandria, sentended to six months;
• Shaheen Sariri, 31, of Fairfax, who could receive a sentence of up to 20 years when he's sentenced on March 9.

In addition, Adams collected another $160,000 in bribes from Elmer Antonio Mejia, 50, a contractor from Aldie, say court documents. Mejia funneled the payments to Adams through a dummy company that Adams controlled.

Mejia also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud, receiving a six-month sentence.

Image: Shutterstock