Dive Brief:
- Baltimore public works employee William Charles Nemec Sr., 55, has agreed to pay $6 million in restitution as part of a guilty plea to accepting bribes from trash haulers for nearly his entire 30-year career, according to federal prosecutors. Nemec also admitted to participating in a scheme in which employees stole scrap metal from the landfill.
- The haulers paid a $100 bribe to landfill employees for each trip they made to the landfill, allowing them to neglect paying the city's $67.50 per ton "tipping" fee. The scheme cost the city $6 million over a decade, according to investigators.
- In July, Tamara Oliver Washington, 55, pleaded guilty and also agreed to pay $6 million in restitution. Two others who have pleaded guilty — Mustafa Sharif, 63, and Adam Williams Jr., 52 — agreed to pay $500,000 and $900,000, respectively.
Dive Insight:
Corruption has been rampant at the landfill for a decade, according to prosecutors working with Baltimore Inspector General Robert H. Pearre Jr. Five DPW employees were recently indicted by a federal grand jury for accepting bribes from haulers or stealing scrap from city landfills, a practice Baltimore Brew described as “junking.”
These indictments and convictions should lead to honest practices at the landfill and restoring the city's faith in the Department of Public Works.
