Former Consultant to Airport Contractor Sentenced for Concealing Scheme to Defraud Airport

Angelo D’Alessandro, 55, of Shelby Township, was sentenced today to 24 months probation and ordered to pay $73,000 in restitution, as well as a  $5,000 fine, after having pleaded guilty to covering up co-defendant Gary Tenaglia’s efforts to defraud the Wayne County Airport Authority (WCAA) of over $1.5 million in 2012 and 2013, United States Attorney Matthew Schneider announced today. 

Schneider was joined in the announcement by Rainer S. Drolshagen, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge of the Detroit Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Andrea M. Kropf, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the United States Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General.

According to court records, D’Alessandro, a business associate of Tenaglia’s, owned and operated a construction company, AQD Construction. Beginning in 2012, Tenaglia conceived and executed a scheme to defraud the WCAA by charging for the application of thousands of pounds of deicing salt called, “NAAC,” which was not applied. In order to conceal the fraudulent charges, Tenaglia fabricated invoices showing a purchase of NAAC for the WCAA from D’Alessandro’s construction company, which Tenaglia never purchased. After learning of Tenaglia’s scheme to defraud the airport, and assisting in its concealment, D’Alessandro failed to notify law enforcement of the crime.

The investigation of this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Transportation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Eaton P. Brown, Paul Kuebler, and R. Michael Bullotta.