An engineer for the New York Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) has admitted to using thousands of dollars of a road reconstruction project’s budget to buy things for his own personal use. Thanks to his plea deal, he won’t spend a single day in prison.
Jerome Lauzon, 45, worked for the NYSDOT. From 2012 through 2017, he was the Engineer in Charge of a road reconstruction project in Washington County, NY, worth $10.5 million. The FHWA provided 80% of the funding for the project.
According to the Department of Justice, while Lauzon oversaw the project, he had employees of the contractor who was working the job purchase over $17,000 worth of goods and services for his own personal use. They included car repairs, a laptop computer, a home entertainment system, a snowblower, and more. All of the expenses were improperly logged as legitimate project expenses.
As part of his plea agreement, Lauzon admitted to falsifying expense entries and asking contractor employees to make the purchases for him. He had already been ordered to pay over $17,000 in restitution, and now he has been ordered to serve one year of probation.
No other criminal charges have been brought in the case.
Source: Freightwaves, DOJ
Shifter says
May I suggest someone please investigate DOT officers at the scale house for fake violations that don’t exist. It is happening!
MrYowler says
That money goes to the state, not the individual. There is an appetite, at the state, to investigate and prosecute people who are perceived to be stealing the state’s money. There is unlikely to be an appetite to pursue people for stealing individual’s money, on behalf of the state.
One of the great joys of our legal system is that there is no force to provide that enforcement be even-handed or uniform. This is one of the principal reasons that it is a “legal” system, and not a “justice” system.
Ks says
Yap!
Unclefungus says
He knew somebody! Corrupt sunza beaches
Michael Orourke says
Corruption will never end in this country untill we all quit paying taxes
MrYowler says
The only thing that eliminates corruption is universal surplus. Greed (the sin underlying corruption) is pointless when there is nothing left to want.
In practice, this is only likely to ever be a reality, after an extinction event.
Be careful what you wish for.
That said, if we all stopped paying taxes, people with guns would come and take our stuff, so that really isn’t an effective way to defeat corruption. Even if (by some miracle) the people with the guns opted not to take other people’s stuff; all of the public infrastructure that holds our society together, would deteriorate and eventually collapse. Hippie-style peace and love leads to the kind of munchies that people die of.
No one likes taxes except the people that receive them… but completely eliminating them doesn’t work, either…
Ken says
Put his behind in jail and the people that worked with him, make an example out of him, or make sure the company he was in with never gets another contract with the state again
Andrew H says
Nah he doesn’t deserve 3 hots and a cot on the taxpayer’s dime. The time would be better spent with a year of filling in potholes with a shovel until it’s paid off. At least then there’s progress.
sonny Pruitt says
I’ll fill potholes with a shovel for 3.65 million a year! When can I start?
The central scrutinizer. says
Washington County is notoriously corrupt. The scales in that county do in fact site by a lations that don’t exist and have cronies available for quick repair to get the trucks out of service they are S bags.
Sara says
No room in the jail. All the innocent proven guilty are still an occupant
sonny Pruitt says
This country has plenty of money, between medicare fraud, food stamp fraud, insurance fraud,and just plain old frauds,we’re 20 trillion in debt. We don’t need any more money, we just need less fraud!
Steve says
We need a real life Dexter for situations like this that way we could all be at piece knowing that sob was resting in pieces.