Bus company owner Richard Brega indicted on corruption charges

The owner of a Clarkstown transportation company who runs the Rockland County bus system was arrested Thursday morning on federal charges for allegedly taking payments for work on Rockland BOCES vehicles that was never done.

Richard Brega, 49, allegedly paid bribes to BOCES Transportation Director William Popkave and falsified documentation to indicate his company, Brega D.O.T. Maintenance Corp., had repaired and maintained school vehicles, prosecutors said in a news release announcing the five-count indictment.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the pair schemed to defraud BOCES then "tried to cover their tracks through fake invoices and deceptive money transactions."

Popkave, 61, of Nanuet has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud, theft, bribery, and obstruction of justice charges in the case, prosecutors also announced. His sentencing by Judge Vincent Briccetti has not been scheduled.

Brega faces the same charges as Popkave. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 80 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The charges indicate Brega and Popkave "not only betrayed the public trust, but risked making school buses, including some used for disabled children, less safe," Bharara said. "Thanks to the work of the FBI and the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office, this allegedly callous scheme has been exposed."

DOCUMENT: Read the Richard Brega indictment

DOCUMENT: Read the charges against William Popkave

Rockland BOCES, which serves eight local school districts, no longer does business with Brega, officials said.

Popkave retired in June after years of managing BOCES transportation services for students with complex disabilities, career and technical education students, and district-based learners, in addition to overseeing fleet maintenance and bus driver testing and training programs.

"We’re obviously dismayed and saddened by these circumstances, but cannot comment further on any matters which are part of the ongoing probe," BOCES Chief Operating Officer Mary Jean Marsico and District Superintendent Charlene Jordon said in a joint statement. "We hold ourselves, and all of our employees, to the highest standards for professional public administrators."

Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said BOCES administrators were unaware of the wrongdoing. He said the allegations highlight "the essence of greed and extremely poor judgment by a former employee and the operator of Rockland County's largest provider of public transportation."

FBI agents and the Rockland District Attorney’s Office detectives took Brega into custody early Thursday as part of a joint investigation by their anti-corruption task force.

Brega pleaded not guilty to the federal indictment Thursday afternoon in U.S. District Court in White Plains before Magistrate Justice Judith McCarthy, his attorney Kerry Lawrence of White Plains said.

McCarthy set Brega's bail at $500,000 bond. He has been released and given two weeks to put up property equal to that value, said Lawrence, a former federal prosecutor.

"Mr. Brega looks forward to defending himself in court," Lawrence said, "and is confident this will turn out OK."

Brega is set to return to court in White Plains on Friday.

INVESTIGATION: Brega paid Alex Gromack for referrals

County review

Rockland County Executive Ed Day said Thursday afternoon that the county would review Brega's contracts through Rockland Transport Corp. to run the county bus system and repair vehicles in the wake of his indictment.

"The viability of our public transportation system here in Rockland is of utmost importance," he said. "If requested, we will fully cooperate with the investigation."

RELATED: Brega takes over Rockland bus operations

Brega, a Nyack High School graduate, started his business in 1997. His business is not connected with the Peter Brega bus company, which serves several school districts in Rockland.

Federal prosecutors say Brega DOT provided vehicle repair service and preventive maintenance for Rockland BOCES’ bus fleet, which included special buses for students with disabilities, from 2008 or 2009 thorugh 2015. The alleged fraud occurred from 2012 through 2014, they said.

Popkave would email Brega lists of buses and their mileages for purposes of creating fraudulent invoices, which Brega and an unnamed co-conspirator and others would create, Bharara said. Brega "bribed William Popkave ... with tens of thousands of dollar's worth of free personal vehicle repairs" for Popkave and his friends and family, in return for Popkave approving payments on the invoices, prosecutors allege.

Brega DOT also would routinely overcharge Rockland BOCES for labor and parts, Bharara said.

Earlier investigations

Brega Transport Corp. has operated the county’s Transport of Rockland, iknown as TOR< and Tappan ZEExpress bus lines, with a fleet of 60 buses, since 2013 after being awarded the five-year, $70 million contract in late 2011 by the Rockland Legislature.

Brega took over after providing a lower bid than the Rockland Transit Corp., a subsidiary of Coach USA, which had held the contract to run Transport of Rockland since 1976.

A Journal News/lohud investigation found nearly a dozen of Brega’s employees and associates had donated $48,000 to the campaign of Legislator Ilan Schoenberger, D-Ramapo, who supported Brega getting the contract.

Schoenberger, who had received several donations of $4,000 or more, denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of the contributions. At the time he was embroiled in a 2013 Democratic Party primary for county executive, which he lost to David Fried, a former legislator and now a Spring Valley justice.

Then-Legislator Ed Day, a Republican serving his first four-year term as county executive, got $900 from Brega, while former Legislator Frank Sparaco, R-Valley Cottage, got more than $800. Brega and his wife Lucinda each contributed $2,600 to Republican Chris Day's campaign for Congress. Day, the son of the county executive, lost to Rep. Nita Lowey, D-Harrison.

While investigators interviewed the donors in a probe of that matter, no charges have been filed.

Schoenberger denied comment Thursday on Brega's indictment.

Day said Thursday the contribution to his campaign didn't influence him. He noted he opposed spending $300,000 for washing Brega buses daily through the end of 2014, faulting Brega Transport Corp. for missed trips, lost fares, inadequate maintenance and incomplete record-keeping.

"You can contribute to me but that doesn't mean you own me," he said.

Fight for contract

Then-Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, a Republican, opposed giving the bus contract to Brega, who had never run a bus system, and the contract went through a court battle before Brega officially took it over.

After Brega won the contract, Rockland Transit Corp. asked the state Supreme Court to throw out the contract and force the county to re-bid. Rockland Transit had held the contract since 1976 before losing out to Brega. The judge found Rockland Transit had filed its legal action too late.

Rockland Transit's legal action also raised the issue in court of the campaign contributions to Schoenberger.

In denying the request, Nicolai wrote that the first political donations were made in April, after the contract award was final. He also noted the court did not have jurisdiction to address potential election law violations.

Brega’s RTB Industries also paid Clarkstown Democratic Supervisor Alexander Gromack $10,000 between February 2012 and March 2013 for referring customers to Brega’s maintenance business while Gromack served as supervisor.

Gromack originally didn’t report the income from Brega on his county Board of Ethics filings, which were subpoenaed in 2015 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office along with other documents involving elected officials.

Gromack amended his filings a day after The Journal News reported he failed to report his financial tief to Brega.

Gromack's original filings did state his wife Joan worked part-time for RTB doing marketing and office work. She's a retired North Rockland School District teacher. Whether she also did referral work is not known. Their daughter also worked part-time during her college vacations for RTB Industries.

Twitter: @lohudlegal