Allegations of bid-rigging and bribes totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars are among federal criminal charges unsealed Monday against two former employees of a prominent firm in Detroit's demolition program.

The charges are the first to come from a lengthy federal probe of Detroit's demolition program that has taken on many facets since it was first launched in 2015.

The two men charged, Aradondo Haskins and Anthony Daguanno, were former Adamo Group estimators, according to the charging documents. Haskins also at one point worked for the City of Detroit.

Daguanno was a senior estimator for Adamo, working for the company from January. 2013 through January 2019. Daguanno was responsible for soliciting bids from subcontractors, assembling bid packages in response to request for proposals and communicating with subcontractors.

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An unknown contractor only referenced in the charging documents as "Contractor A" paid Daguanno money for disclosing confidential information about bids from its competitors. In total, he was paid more than $372,000 in bribes.

Daguanno was paid on at least 71 occasions over an eight-year period through several means, including interstate wire communications, according to the documents.

Haskins, who was employed from about January 2013 to April 2015, was tasked with assembling bid packages in response to requests for proposals issued by the City of Detroit.

"In return for these payments, Haskins disclosed confidential information about the lowest competitor bid which allowed Contractor A to submit an even lower bid, ensuring that Contractor A was awarded lucrative contracts," the indictment said.

Haskins was paid on at least eight occasions while he worked at Adamo. Haskins later worked at the city Building Authority as a field operations manager in April 2015. The demolition program is jointly managed by the DBA and Detroit Land Bank Authority.

He went on to use his "position to influence the demolition contract bidding process," according to the documents and used his authority to influence contracts being awarded to Contractor A.

"Mr. Haskins was terminated by the DBA three years ago," DBA Director Tyrone Clifton said. "The DBA expects all of its employees to uphold the highest ethical standards. Anyone who committed any illegal activity in any aspect of the demolition prgoram should be held accountable and we will continue to cooperate fully."

The federal probe has long been shrouded in mystery since it was reported that demolition prices had risen as much as 60% under Duggan's administration. The city's demolition program is managed by the Detroit Land Bank Authority and the Detroit Building Authority under a structure Mayor Mike Duggan put in place after he was elected in 2014.

More than $250 million from the Hardest Hit Fund has been allocated to Detroit for its demolition program since Duggan began his aggressive effort to tackle blight across the city. MHA said it has disbursed more than $176 million in federal funds to demolish 10,755 properties. Detroit has the largest demolition program of its kind in the nation.

The Free Press previously reported that suspicions of bid rigging arose in the summer of 2016 during a forensic audit of the demolition program performed by two firms hired by the state — Holland & Knight and Ernst & Young. A state official later said in 2017 that it "didn't see any bid rigging." The suspicions coincided with a three-month suspension of the city's demolition program imposed by the U.S. Treasury.

The investigation into dirt usage and billing is the latest layer of the ongoing SIGTARP and previously reported FBI investigation.

A Free Press investigation in February revealed that federal authorities were probing whether contaminated dirt was potentially used to fill sites across Detroit.

Congresswomen Brenda Lawrence and Rashida Tlaib jointly called for increased oversight of blight remediation efforts across Michigan, including Detroit, following the newspaper investigation.

"We look forward to working with you on the federal level to ensure that all MIchiganders know whether or not the soil being used to fill the demolition holes represents a public health issue," Lawrence and Tlaib wrote.

The federal government also is investigating whether some companies used free dirt obtained from a variety of unverified sources and then passed it off as an approved residential dirt source before billing the demolition program for materials they never actually bought.

After the Free Press investigation, City Council President Pro Tem Mary Sheffield called for congressional hearings to be held on the city's federally funded demolition program. State Rep. LaTanya Garrett also called for state-level hearings.

Federal agents are also now investigating who was involved in an alleged scheme where a Chicago-based company tore down homes in Detroit and hid the debris under layers of dirt. McDonagh Demolition contends that the individuals involved "acted on their own, without the knowledge, authorization or consent" of the company's ownership or management.

Kat Stafford writes enterprise and investigative stories about Detroit. Contact her: kstafford@freepress.com or 313-223-4759. To read previous coverage of the demolition program go to www.freep.com/news/investigations/