Con Ed Contractor Sentenced to 48 Months’ Imprisonment for Bribery and Tax Evasion Charges

Defendant Concealed and Then Deducted Bribe Payments to Con Ed Supervisors as Business Deductions on His Companies’ Tax Returns

  Yesterday, in federal court in Brooklyn, Rodolfo Quiambao, the former President and Chief Executive Officer of the engineering and electrical design firm Rudell & Associates, Inc. (Rudell), was sentenced to 48 months’ imprisonment for federal programs bribery and tax evasion in connection with his scheme to pay bribes and kickbacks to supervisors at Consolidated Edison of New York (Con Ed) in exchange for receiving lucrative contracts and other benefits from the public utility services provider.  Quiambao was also sentenced to pay a $125,000 fine and more than $4.5 million in restitution to the IRS.  At the time of his guilty plea in March 2016, Quiambao agreed to forfeit $1 million in criminal proceeds.  Yesterday’s sentencing took place before United States District Judge Allyne R. Ross. 

Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; James D. Robnett, Special Agent-in-Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), New York; Michael Nestor, Inspector General, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Office of the Inspector General; and Angel M. Melendez, Special Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), in New York, announced the sentence.  

According to court filings and facts presented during court proceedings, starting in approximately 2000, Quiambao surreptitiously and regularly gave Con Ed supervisors hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and checks in exchange for securing work, including lucrative “sole source” contracts, for his company.  Quiambao also engaged in tax evasion by first concealing and then deducting the bribe payments he paid to the Con Ed supervisors as business deductions on his companies’ tax returns.   

Quiambao’s sentencing was the latest step in the government’s investigation of bribery and kickback schemes involving employees and contractors of Con Ed.  Since 2008, 13 Con Ed supervisors and employees and three Con Ed contractors have been convicted.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Public Integrity Section.  Assistant United States Attorneys Paul Tuchmann and Claire S. Kedeshian are in charge of the prosecution.

The Defendant:

RODOLFO QUIAMBAO

Age:  73

Residence: Queens, New York