Grand jury: South Carolina contractor bribed Kentucky engineer in $14.9 million job
A South Carolina businessman bribed an engineer at a Kentucky steel plant to help him get a $14.9 million contract, a federal grand jury has charged.
The grand jury indicted Tony Berenyi Thursday on a charge of conspiracy; 14 charges of wire fraud; five charges of money laundering; and five counts of engaging in transactions involving money obtained illegally.
Berenyi allegedly paid more than $450,000 in kickbacks in 2018 and 2019 to Jaymin G. Vinson, an engineer at the Nucor Steel Gallatin LLC plant in Northern Kentucky, according to court documents.
However, an attorney for Berenyi said he cooperated with the FBI investigation of Vinson and denies any wrongdoing
Berenyi founded Berenyi, Inc. in 1989. The company in Charleston, S.C. provides engineering, architecture and construction services, according to its site.
The indictment charges that Berenyi met Vinson for dinner at the Belterra Casino Hotel in late 2017 and proposed to pay Vinson a “finder’s fee” to help his company get a contract for planned expansion at the Nucor mill.
The two came up with a scheme in which Berenyi would pay Vinson either 30% of the net profits on the job or 15% of the gross billings, the indictment alleges.
‘Unlawfully enriching’
Berenyi allegedly hid the cost of the kickbacks in his proposal to Nucor. The steel company did not know about scheme, according to the indictment.
The scheme had the effect of “unlawfully enriching Berenyi and Vinson without regard for the interests of Nucor, without disclosing the arrangement to Nucor, and causing Nucor to incur expense not legitimately part of business or a contract’s value,” the indictment charges.
Vinson pleaded guilty in July to a conspiracy charge.
His plea agreement lists a total of $452,125 in kickbacks from Berenyi.
That counts $95,000 from a period in 2018 when Berenyi’s company provided consulting services, but before it provided services under a construction-management contract, according to the document.
The indictment against Berenyi does not include that $95,000.
Vinson agreed to a judgment of $452,125 to Nucor.
‘He was the victim’
The conspiracy charge against Vinson is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. He is to be sentenced in March.
The indictment against Berenyi seeks a judgment of $396,500, which it says represents the proceeds he obtained as a result of the alleged crimes.
Several of the charges against him are punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Peter Shahid, who represents Berenyi, said he disputes the account in the indictment and was surprised to be indicted after cooperating with the investigation.
Vinson was shaking Berenyi down for payments and Berenyi was the one who told Nucor about that conduct, Shahid said.
Vinson’s plea agreement says Berenyi told the steel company about the scam in November 2019. Nucor fired Vinson and terminated the contract with Berenyi, according to the plea agreement.
“He was the victim in the whole scheme,” Shahid said of Berenyi.
According to Berenyi’s company site, he received a degree in civil engineering from The Citadel and a master’s degree in structural dynamics from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, and was awarded a Bronze Star for leading a unit in Operation Desert Storm, the U.S-led response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in the early 1990s.
A business publication named Berenyi as the top general contractor in the state earlier this year.
Berenyi and his company are well-respected in Charleston, Shahid said.
