Executive admits conspiracy to bribe Amtrak manager in 30th St. Station project with luxury watches, vacations, and a German shepherd
Donald Seefeldt, a former executive at Illinois firm Mark 1 Restoration, admitted in federal court that he and others conspired to give an Amtrak manager $323,686 worth of bribes.
In January 2017, two executives at a construction firm working on the restoration of 30th Street Station’s limestone facade took an Amtrak employee out to dinner. They came bearing a gift.
Months earlier, project manager Ajith Bhaskaran had asked his bosses at the quasi-public national rail operator to approve millions in new expenditures for the restoration.
And now, Lee Maniatis and Donald Seefeldt, of the Illinois firm Mark 1 Restoration, had something for their benefactor — a $5,631 Tourneau watch.
It seemed to pay off: Shortly thereafter, they learned Amtrak had approved a change order authorizing additional funds. Maniatis texted Seefeldt on Jan. 19 that year, “[d]inner was worth it,” according to federal prosecutors.
Last week, Seefeldt admitted in federal court that he and others conspired to give Bhaskaran $323,686 worth of bribes — including the luxury watch — in exchange for the Amtrak manager’s efforts to secure tens of millions of dollars of extra work.
Other gifts included airfare and expenses for vacations in India and Ecuador, limousine rentals, meals, cash, alcohol, and — at Bhaskaran’s request — another, more expensive ($11,294) watch to replace the original one, according to prosecutors.
Mark 1 Restoration executives also treated Bhaskaran to a German shepherd puppy, dog training services, and tickets to see Bruno Mars, according to the Chicago Tribune, which cited an FBI search warrant affidavit made public in 2021.
Seefeldt, 65, of Wilmette, Ill., pleaded guilty last week before U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone in Philadelphia to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, outgoing U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero said.
The contractor’s former senior executive vice president, Seefeldt, is scheduled to be sentenced in May and faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Seefeldt’s colleague Maniatis and another executive, Khaled Dallo, have also pleaded guilty and face sentencing later this year, court records show.
Ninety percent of the funding for the 30th Street Station project, announced in 2015, was provided by the federal government, prosecutors said. Under the bribery scheme, Bhaskaran approved $52 million in extra work, nearly doubling the project’s total cost. The conspirators also falsely inflated some of the project costs, causing Amtrak to be overbilled by $2 million, prosecutors said.
“Every dollar of federal funding lost to fraud is a dollar less to put toward legitimate programs and projects,” Romero said in a news release. “My office and our partners will continue to hold accountable those who try to pad their pockets at taxpayers’ and the U.S. government’s expense.”
Sergio E. Acosta, an attorney for Seefeldt at Akerman LLP, declined to comment.
Before the criminal scheme was exposed, Bhaskaran told WHYY in 2018 that Amtrak expanded the scope of the project because “this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do this work.”
He was charged in 2019 in an unrelated fraud scheme. After Bhaskaran was arrested, he admitted to investigators that he had accepted bribes from Amtrak contractors, the Tribune reported.
Bhaskaran, of Cherry Hill, died in October 2020.