Former Executive at Masonry Contractor Admits Conspiring to Bribe Amtrak Employee in Exchange for Over $50 Million in Extra Work on 30th Street Station Project

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero announced that Donald Seefeldt, 65, of Wilmette, Illinois, entered a plea of guilty yesterday before United States District Court Judge Wendy Beetlestone to a one-count information charging him with conspiracy to commit federal program bribery.

As presented in the information, on or about December 10, 2015, a masonry restoration contractor (the “Contractor”) was awarded a $58,473,000 contract by Amtrak to be the main contractor on a façade repair and restoration project at Amtrak’s 30^th Street Station in Philadelphia.

Federal funding supplied approximately 90 percent of the money Amtrak used to pay the Contractor for the repair and restoration of the 30th Street Station façade.

Defendant Seefeldt was the Senior Executive Vice President of the Contractor with responsibility to provide executive oversight of the Contractor’s performance on the 30th Street Station façade project.

Lee Maniatis and Khaled Dallo, both charged elsewhere, were Vice Presidents of the Contractor, with responsibility to supervise the Contractor’s performance on the 30th Street Station façade project. Official #1 was the sole owner and a senior officer of the Contractor.

Amtrak Employee #1 was employed by Amtrak as the Project Manager on the repair and restoration project. In that capacity, Amtrak Employee #1 was responsible for communicating with the Contractor about the work being done on 30th Street Station. Amtrak Employee #1 was also responsible for reviewing the invoices, change orders, and requests for payment that the Contractor submitted to Amtrak. Amtrak Employee #1 had the power to approve or reject these invoices, change orders, and requests for payment. Although Amtrak Employee #1 did not have the singular authority to approve Amtrak payments to the Contractor, his approval was a critical step in that process.

The contract between Amtrak and the Contractor prohibited the defendant and other Contractor officials from “offer[ing] to any Amtrak employee, agent, or representative any cash, gift, entertainment, commission, or kickback for the purpose of securing favorable treatment with regard to award or performance of any contract or agreement.”

As alleged in the information, from in or about May 2016 through in or about November 2019, in Philadelphia, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, Seefeldt conspired, combined, and agreed with others known and unknown to the United States Attorney, including Amtrak Employee #1, Maniatis, Dallo, and Official #1, to commit an offense against the United States; that is, to knowingly and corruptly give, offer, and agree to give, a thing of value to Amtrak Employee #1, an agent of an organization which received in each one-year period from 2016 through 2019, benefits in excess of $10,000 under a federal program involving a grant, contract, subsidy, loan, and other form of federal assistance, intending to influence and reward Amtrak Employee #1 in connection with any business, transaction and series of transactions involving a thing of value of $5,000 or more.

Specifically, the information alleges, Seefeldt and the others, with the knowledge and agreement of Official #1, provided Amtrak Employee #1 with gifts and other things of value totaling approximately $323,686, including, among other things, paid vacations, jewelry, cash, dinners, entertainment, and transportation, to ensure that Amtrak Employee #1 used his power and influence to benefit the Contractor during the performance of the 30th Street Station Repair and Restoration Project.

In return for these gifts and other things of value, Amtrak Employee #1 allegedly used his position at Amtrak to access internal agency information available only to Amtrak employees about the 30th Street Station Project and shared this internal information with the defendant and other officials with the Contractor.

The information further alleges that Amtrak Employee #1 used his position at Amtrak to approve additional, more expensive changes to the 30th Street Station Repair and Restoration Project, thereby increasing the amount and value of the work to be performed by the Contractor. These additional expenses were reflected in a series of change orders or contract modifications. In total, Amtrak Employee #1 approved over $52 million of additional payments from Amtrak to the Contractor. Amtrak Employee #1 and officials with the Contractor, including defendant Seefeldt, falsely inflated the true costs of some of the work to be performed by the Contractor under these change orders, causing Amtrak to be substantially overbilled by over $2 million for the completion of the 30th Street Station Repair and Restoration Project.

Seefeldt is scheduled to be sentenced on May 22 and faces a maximum possible sentence of five years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, three years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. Full restitution of as much as $2,062,374, joint and with several other co-conspirators, also shall be ordered.

“Every dollar of federal funding lost to fraud is a dollar less to put toward legitimate programs and projects,” said U.S. Attorney Romero. “My office and our partners will continue to hold accountable those who try to pad their pockets at taxpayers’ and the U.S. government’s expense.”

The case was investigated by the FBI, the Amtrak Office of Inspector General, and the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jason Grenell.