April 17--A manager at Pace pocketed more than $280,000 in kickbacks in exchange for helping information technology contractors land jobs at the suburban bus agency, federal prosecutors have charged.
The criminal complaint alleges that Rajinder Sachdeva, department manager of applications at Pace, used a business co-owned by his wife to try to conceal some of the kickback money. She was not charged with any wrongdoing.
At a hearing Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Cox ordered Sachdeva released on $150,000 cash bond. The judge asked his wife to ensure he abided by all the bond conditions.
Sachdeva, 51, of Schaumburg, was charged with one count of accepting kickbacks. He was arrested Wednesday.
In a statement issued by Pace, board Chairman Richard Kwasneski said the agency partnered with the FBI and U.S. attorney's office in the investigation of Sachdeva over the last several months. But the agency declined to comment further Thursday.
The 22-page federal complaint alleges that Sachdeva, who oversaw Pace's database management system and wielded influence over which outside IT contractors did work for Pace, demanded "kickbacks and gratuities" from them since joining Pace in January 2010.
As part of the scheme, Sachdeva instructed one contractor to submit invoices to the company owned by Sachdeva's wife by using the phony name Sue Peters, prosecutors alleged. The false invoice was ultimately submitted to Pace for payment, according to the charges.
The co-owner of Sachdeva's wife's company began cooperating with investigators last year and wore a hidden recorder during several meetings with Sachdeva, including a January meeting at a McDonald's restaurant in Schaumburg, according to the charges.
At that meeting, Sachdeva and the informant spoke in Hindi about how to disguise kickback payments on tax forms as rent for office space, according to the charges.
"You have to pay my rent for the last two years so calculate that and your money came late and it was late," the complaint quotes Sachdeva as saying. "This is clean, I tell you. If you issue me a 1099 (IRS form), then that will be a problem."
jmeisner@tribpub.com
