Con Ed Contractor Pleads Guilty To Bribery And Tax Evasion Charges

Earlier today in federal court in Brooklyn, Rodolfo Quiambao, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the engineering and design firm Rudell & Associates, Inc. (Rudell), pleaded guilty to two counts of federal programs bribery in connection with his scheme to pay bribes and kickbacks to supervisors at Consolidated Edison of New York (Con Ed) in exchange for receiving lucrative contracts and other benefits from the public utility services provider.  Quiambao also pleaded guilty to two counts of tax evasion.  As part of his plea agreement, Quiambao agreed to pay a total of over $5 million in forfeiture and restitution.  When sentenced, he faces up to 30 years in prison.  Today’s plea proceeding took place before United States District Judge Allyne R. Ross. 

The plea was announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Angel M. Melendez, Special Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), in New York; Shantelle P. Kitchen, Special Agent-in-Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), New York; and Michael Nestor, Inspector General, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Office of the Inspector General.

According to court filings and facts presented during the plea proceeding, starting in approximately 2000, Quiambao, whose company specializes in electrical design, surreptitiously and regularly gave Con Ed supervisors hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and checks in exchange for securing work, including lucrative “sole source” contracts, for his company.  The defendant also engaged in tax evasion by first concealing and then deducting the bribe payments he paid to the Con Ed supervisors as business deductions on his companies’ tax returns.   

Quiambao’s guilty plea is the latest conviction in the government’s investigation of bribery and kickback schemes involving employees and contractors of Con Ed.  Since 2008, thirteen Con Ed supervisors and employees and three Con Ed contractors have been convicted.

In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Capers extending his grateful appreciation to the participating law enforcement agencies.

The government’s case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Public Integrity Section.  Assistant United States Attorneys Lan Nguyen, Tali Farhadian, and Claire S. Kedeshian are in charge of the prosecution.

The Defendant:

RODOLFO QUIAMBAO
Age:  71
Queens, New York

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 15-CR-0515