Cedar Grove Contractor Sentenced for Bribery

A Cedar Grove contractor, who spent thousands of dollars bribing a Union County port employee to steer business his way, was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in prison, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said.

Louis Gargiulo, 58, spent thousands of dollars between 2000 and 2011 providing kickbacks to Donald Olesky, who was then the director of facilities maintenance at Maher Terminal, Port Elizabeth.

In exchange for the bribes, Olesky steered work to Gargiulo’s company LG II to secure contracts Fishman said.

Gargiulo was sentenced in Trenton Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Freda L. Wolfson to one count of using the mail in aid of commercial bribery.

Between 2000 and February 2011 Gargiulo paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks to Olesky.

In addition, from November 2010 through February 2011, Gargiulo paid Olesky $18,000 in kickbacks for a $300,000 construction contract that Olesky had steered to LG II.

Wolfson also sentenced Gargiulo to one year of supervised release, fined him $6,000 and ordered him to forfeit $36,087.36.

Olesky previously pleaded guilty to engaging in commercial bribery before Wolfson and is awaiting sentencing.