Consultant Sentenced to 18 Months in Federal Prison for Conspiracy to Bribe A Public Official

Greenbelt, Maryland – On May 23, 2017, U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang sentenced Anatoly Samgorodsky, age 65, of Sarasota, Florida to 18 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy to bribe a public official. Judge Chuang also ordered Samgorodsky to pay a $25,000 fine and restitution in the amount of $70,000.

The sentence was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Stephen M. Schenning and Special Agent in Charge Gordon B. Johnson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office.

According to his plea agreement, Samgorodsky was a metallurgy consultant and part owner of a metallurgical research company located in Long Island City, New York. Between August 2014 and December 2015, Samgorodsky and co-conspirators entered into what they believed to be a $3.4 million Department of Energy (DOE) funded research contract, but was in fact, a pretextual contract arranged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

During the course of negotiating the contract, Samgorodsky and co-conspirators negotiated the specifics of a bribe to be paid to a public official who worked at DOE, who unbeknownst to Samgorodsky, was cooperating with the FBI. In September 2014, Samgorodsky requested the public official’s assistance with obtaining government or private sectors contracts to benefit his company. During the same month, at the direction of FBI investigators, the public official contacted Samgorodsky. In a recorded conversation, Samgorodsky relayed his company’s interest in obtaining new clients and contracts, and how he would reward the public official for helping him. The public official subsequently introduced Samgorodsky and a co-conspirator to an undercover FBI agent posing as a DOE employee. Samgorodsky and his co-conspirators eventually agreed to pay a bribe of approximately $80,000 in installments to the undercover FBI agent.

Between June 2015 and August 2015, Samgorodsky and his co-conspirators received a total of $263,500 in progress payments from the FBI under the alleged contract. Samgorodsky and his co-conspirators then agreed to convert a portion of these funds into cash, and pay the undercover agent in installments of $5,000 and $10,000 in June and July 2015, respectively, and $2,500 on September 3, 2015.

Acting United States Attorney Stephen M. Schenning commended the FBI for their work in the investigation. Mr. Schenning thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney David I. Salem, who prosecuted the case.