Investigations

On December 5, 2008, Balram (“Balu”) Chandiramani, formerly New York City (NYC) DOT’s Director of Movable Bridges, was sentenced in U.S. District Court, Brooklyn, New York, to serve one year and one day incarceration, pay a $12,500 fine and $4,500 in restitution for a bribery scheme on a DOT funded project. Mr. Chandiramani, and a co–defendant, Uday Shah, a NYC DOT assistant civil engineer, were charged with participating in a scheme in which they agreed to accept $400,000 from an executive of a general contracting corporation in exchange for influencing the settlement of a multimillion claim against the NYC, in connection with reconstruction of the city’s Third Avenue Bridge, a federally funded project. Sentencing for Mr. Shah is scheduled for January 2009. Our investigation was conducted jointly with the Department of Labor OIG, the Port Authority of NY & NJ, and the NYC Department of Investigation.