The owner of a Chicago-area construction company was sentenced Wednesday to 7\u00bd years in federal prison in a scheme to bribe a corrupt Amtrak official overseeing a $58 million contract to renovate a historic train station in Philadelphia with hundreds of thousands of dollars in lavish gifts, including trips, meals, jewelry and a German shepherd puppy.<\/p>\n
Mark Snedden, 69, of Munster, Indiana, the founder and president of Dolton-based MARK 1 Restoration Co., pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia earlier this year to one count each of conspiracy to commit federal program bribery and making a false claim.<\/p>\n
In addition to a 90-month prison term, U.S. District Chief Judge Wendy Beetlestone fined Snedden $250,000 and ordered him to pay just over $2 million in restitution, according to the U.S. attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
In asking for a sentence of up to 9 years behind bars, prosecutors argued in a recent court filing that Snedden and his co-defendants, who worked for him at Mark 1, \u201cpaid a staggering number of bribes\u201d in order to illegally obtain millions of dollars in bogus contract payments \u2014\u00a0and did so out of sheer greed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scheme was completely unnecessary as Snedden was already a millionaire many times over at the time,\u201d Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Grennel wrote. \u201cHe just wanted more money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Snedden\u2019s attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday, and their sentencing filings were not public on the court docket. A spokesman for MARK 1 had previously told the Tribune that Snedden has \u201caccepted full responsibility for this matter\u201d and provided extensive cooperation to the government after being confronted with his wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
Another employee of MARK 1, Donald Seefeldt, has already been sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison for his role in the scheme, court records show. Two others, Lee Maniatis and Khaled Dallo, have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.<\/p>\n
Snedden\u2019s sentencing comes more than four years after the Tribune exposed<\/a> the Chicago-area connections to the investigation, which centered on an Amtrak official, Ajith Bhaskaran, who allegedly approved tens of millions of dollars of extra payments for MARK 1 over the course of the project to restore the facade of Philadelphia\u2019s 30th Street train station, nearly doubling the amount promised in the original contract.<\/p>\n Among the gifts allegedly bestowed upon Bhaskaran by Snedden\u2019s company were trips to India and the Galapagos Islands, meals at an expensive steakhouse, lavish parties at Atlantic City casinos, tickets to see Bruno Mars and a Tourneau watch that cost more than $11,000, according to the charges.<\/p>\n Shortly after receiving the watch, Bhaskaran approved millions in additional spending for MARK 1, the charges alleged. On Jan. 23, 2017, Maniatis forwarded the approval of the change order to Snedden with the notation \u201c$ ding.\u201d<\/p>\n Later that year, Maniatis, with Snedden\u2019s approval, spent $4,700 related to the purchase of a purebred German shepherd puppy, according to an FBI search warrant affidavit unsealed several years ago.<\/p>\n About a month after receiving the dog, which he named Matcha, Bhaskaran requested that Amtrak authorize an additional $5.7 million for the facade restoration project, with much of the requested funds to go to MARK 1.<\/p>\n Then, in early 2018, Bhaskaran emailed Maniatis a $1,475 invoice from a dog-training school with instructions to \u201cPlease call and discuss this with me.\u201d Credit card records show Maniatis paid for that invoice as well as an additional charge from the training school for $3,875 in March 2018, the affidavit alleged.<\/p>\n FBI agents later were watching Bhaskaran at his home and took photos of him with the dog.<\/p>\n \u201cYour affiant is aware, based on FBI surveillance, that Bhaskaran is the present owner of a German shepherd,\u201d the affidavit stated.<\/p>\n Bhaskaran was found dead in his home of an apparent heart attack in October 2020. At the time, he had been negotiating a plea deal with the government on separate charges alleging he bilked the Social Security program out of a quarter-million dollars, the Tribune previously reported.<\/p>\n The bribery scandal, which began when an anonymous letter accusing Bhaskaran of fraud was sent to Amtrak\u2019s inspector general in March 2018, is one of the biggest to ever hit Amtrak, a quasi-public corporation that is heavily subsidized by the U.S. government, with nearly $4.3 billion in taxpayer funds going to the agency in 2022.<\/p>\n Amtrak has said it \u201ctook swift and definitive action to terminate the employees\u201d involved in the scheme and enhanced its oversight to \u201cprotect the company from criminal activities.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Snedden and his firm were both referenced in the 2024 trial of another business owner accused of paying bribes to Cook County assessor\u2019s office employees to help reduce property tax assessments.<\/p>\n