Former Pace Bus Service Manager Sentenced to Prison for Bribery
A former manager for the suburban bus agency Pace has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for pocketing nearly $300,000 in gratuities and kickbacks from contractors.
Rajinder Sachdeva, 54, of Schaumburg, pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of solicitation of bribes and gratuities by an agent of a federally funded organization. The crime occurred from 2010 to 2014, during which Sachdeva used his position as a department manager at Pace to corruptly demand and accept nearly $300,000 in gratuities and kickbacks from IT contractors.
In exchange for his corrupt actions, Sachdeva exerted his influence to hire or continue to engage the contractors at Pace. He concealed this arrangement from Pace by having the payments flow through companies that he controlled.
U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis on Friday sentenced Sachdeva to a year and a day in federal prison. The sentence was announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Jeffrey S. Sallet, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Andrea M. Kropf, Regional Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General.
Pace provided valuable assistance in the investigation, which found that Sachdeva used his position to line his own pockets. The government argued in the sentencing memorandum that public corruption is a significant problem in this district, and Sachdeva’s corrupt behavior is the type that erodes the public’s confidence in public agencies.
Sachdeva served as the Department Manager of Applications for Pace, which is the suburban bus division of the Regional Transportation Authority. In that role, he oversaw the implementation of information technology used by Pace to support its various business units, such as human resources, accounting, purchasing, payments, and grant writing.
The investigation found that Sachdeva solicited and received $292,708 in gratuities and kickbacks from the contractors in exchange for the influence he exerted in placing or maintaining certain IT contractors at Pace.
Key Facts
- State: Illinois
- Category: Public Corruption
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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