DETROIT – A former supervisor of the Wayne County Airport Authority who was indicted for allegedly accepting bribes is set to return to court Wednesday for sentencing.
You can watch the sentencing live in the stream above.
Court documents show that James Warner, a department manager in utilities and infrastructure at the WCAA, was responsible for field inspection and supervision of maintenance and repair projects at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. He also had the authority to recommend and approve the continuation of maintenance contracts during his time as a agent of the WCAA from 2010-2014, according to court documents.
According to court records, Warner conspired with William Pritula. Pritula owned Pritila and Sons, a company that entered contracts for pavement repair and replacement, as well as water main repair and fire hydrant installation and maintenance at the airport.
Warner and Pritula allegedly devised a plan in which Watner would provide confidential and proprietary information to Pritula so his company could secure contracts. After the contracts were secured, Warner, with Pritula's permission, would create and submit fraudulent invoices on behalf of Pritula's company for work contracted to be done at the airport, documents showed.
Documents state that the invoices "grossly inflated the cost and scope of William Priula's labor, so that William Pritula and James Warner could defraud the WCAA and pay kickbacks to James Warner."
As part of the scheme, from September 2010 through October 2014, Pritula's companies allegedly received more than $18,00,000 from the WCAA. Of that amount, Warner received more than $5,000,000 in kickbacks from the bribery and embezzlement conspiracy.
Warner also allegedly conspired with Gary Tengalia, who owned Envision Electric, a company that was to provide maintenance for airport parking structures, court records show. Tengalia was charged with wire fraud last month for allegedly scamming the airport out of more than $1,500,000.
Warner and Tengalia allegedly came up with a plan to allow Tengalia to secure and remain contracts at the airport. Warner would hide from the WCAA mistakes that Tengalia's company made in maintenance and repair projects while demanding kickbacks from Tengalia, according to court documents.
Court documents also show that Warner told Tengalia he needed to pay to be part of the "brotherhood" at the airport. He allegedly took Tengalia out to dinner to discuss the kickback arrangement. During the meal, Warner wrote, "5K," on a napkin and slide it to Tengalia. After Tengalia acknowledged the writing, Warner allegedly ate the napkin.
At least once a month, Tengalia would pay cash kickbacks to Warner, totaling more than $100,000 from about May 2011 to June 2014, court documents show.