Executive who bribed Amtrak manager for lucrative 30th Street Station contracts sentenced to 18 months in prison

A senior executive of an Illinois-based masonry company was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in prison for his role in a scheme to bribe an Amtrak employee in exchange for lucrative contracts to restore 30th Street Station.

Lee Maniatis, 58, was one of several senior employees of Mark 1 Restoration who participated in the crimes. But prosecutors said he played a central role, influencing the Amtrak project manager, Ajith Bhaskaran, to sign off on a series of additional contracts worth tens of millions of dollars.

His prison term will be followed by three years of supervised release. Maniatis has already paid a $278,000 restitution fee, though he will also be required to contribute to a restitution fund of more than $2 million alongside his former associates.

In all, Maniatis and his colleagues funneled gifts worth more than $323,000 to Bhaskaran between 2016 and 2019, buying him luxury wristwatches and cigars, pricey vacations to India and the Galápagos Islands, Bruno Mars concert tickets, lavish dinners in Center City, and rides in limousines.

In exchange, Bhaskaran helped secure tens of millions of dollars in extra government-funded work for Mark 1 Restoration, ultimately doubling the cost of what began as a $58 million project to renovate the historic train station’s limestone facade.

While the firm did legitimate work on the property, most of the gifts were effectively subsidized by the government because Mark 1 falsely inflated its invoices by $2 million to cover the bribes. And Amtrak explicitly prohibits firms from offering gifts in exchange for favorable contracts.

Prosecutors had ample evidence linking Maniatis to the bribes. Around the time of a January 2017 dinner between Maniatis, a colleague, and Bhaskaran, the Amtrak employee was considering whether to authorize an additional $13.4 million work order for the firm. Maniatis, prosecutors said, gave Bhaskaran a Tourneau worth more than $5,000 during that meeting.

Bhaskaran approved the contract days later, and “[d]inner was worth it,” Maniatis texted an associate. Later he texted his boss: “$ ding.”

Maniatis, accompanied by his wife, appeared in federal court in Philadelphia Thursday and teared up as he read a statement to U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone.

“I’m completely ashamed,” he said. “I was sick about it then, I’m sick about it now.”

The judge said the former executive’s remorse was palpable. But she said Maniatis had a choice to go to authorities over those three years — and didn’t.

“Only when federal agents raided his home” in 2019 did Maniatis admit to his wrongdoing, Beetlestone said.

“He could have resigned,” she continued. “He could have reported it to the FBI.”

Theodore T. Poulos, one of Maniatis’ defense attorneys, said he still recalls the day after that raid, when the former executive told the lawyer he’d “ruined his life.”

Poulos said Maniatis had been a victim of “misguided loyalty” to Mark 1’s owner and president, Marak Snedden, who pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery and making a false claim in the scheme.

Still, U.S. Attorney Jason Grenell said, Maniatis “made a choice” to siphon public taxpayer money to “line people’s pockets.”

The attorney commended Maniatis for being the first defendant in the case to plead guilty for his crimes, swiftly admitting his guilt while his coconspirators fended off the government’s allegations in court, Grenell said.

Maniatis is not the first Mark 1 employee to face prosecution.

Early this month, Snedden, was sentenced in Beetlestone’s courtroom to 7½ years in prison. The admission made Snedden the sixth person involved to face consequences for the scheme.

Bhaskaran had been charged with unrelated wire fraud in 2019 but died of heart failure a year later.

Court documents show Bhaskaran had outsized power to approve work on behalf of the transit agency — and that his signature on “substantially overbilled” work routinely corresponded with sumptuous treatment from Maniatis and Mark 1 employees.

One such instance came in December 2017, when Bhaskaran authorized an additional $5.6 million in work for the firm. That same month, court records show, Maniatis paid $9,500 for him to visit India with a relative.

Maniatis emailed Bhaskaran tickets the following year priced at $766 for a New Year’s Eve party at Stratus, a rooftop lounge at Kimpton Hotel Monaco — a purchase investigators said Maniatis had made on his own credit card.

And when Bhaskaran decided that the Tourneau watch was not to his liking, Maniatis was ready to return it and purchase Bhaskaran an even more expensive timepiece, spending $11,294.

Beetlestone denied Poulos’ request that Maniatis be allowed to spend the entirety of his sentence on probation. He will serve his term at a prison in Lewisburg, Pa.

“Lack of fortitude is not an excuse for criminal conduct,” Beetlestone said.

Staff writer Chris Palmer contributed to this article.