Essex County Man Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Role in Port Bribery Scheme

TRENTON, NJ—An Essex County, New Jersey contractor was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for paying bribes to an employee of a container ship terminal facility at a port in Union County in order to secure contracts for construction projects, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Louis Gargiulo, 58, of Cedar Grove, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty to an information charging him with one count of using the mail in aid of commercial bribery. U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson imposed sentence today in Trenton federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Gargiulo was a principal in LG II, a general contracting company in Cedar Grove. From 2000 through February 2011, Gargiulo paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks to Donald Olesky, who was then the director of facilities maintenance at Maher Terminal, Port Elizabeth, New Jersey, in exchange for Olesky steering work to LG II. From November 2010 through February 2011, Gargiulo paid Olesky $18,000 in kickbacks for a $300,000 construction contract that Olesky had steered to LG II.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Wolfson sentenced Gargiulo to one year of supervised release, fined him $6,000, and ordered him to forfeit $36,087.36.

Olesky previously pleaded guilty to engaging in commercial bribery before Judge Wolfson and is awaiting sentencing.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI’s Trenton Resident Agency, 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.