Montco’s former chief information officer accuses county of ‘fraud, waste, wrongdoing’ in lawsuit
Anthony Olivieri, Montgomery County's former chief information officer, says in the suit that he was fired because of mental health accommodation requests and because he was a whistleblower.
Montgomery County‘s former chief information officer says he was terminated because he requested accommodations for his mental health, according to a lawsuit.
But while claiming that there is “simply no question” Anthony Olivieri was terminated primarily due to his request for accommodations, the complaint takes a detour to describe instances of what it calls “fraud, waste, wrongdoing” by Montco officials since 2017.
Olivieri suffered from “anxiety, panic and depression complications,” the suit says. He took a medical leave of absence from November 2024 to January 2025. The issues persisted when Olivieri returned to work, in part because of “mistreatment,” the complaint says.
In July, the county fired him.
The fraud and wrongdoing allegations are included in the complaint because they explain how Olivieri’s “whistleblowing” contributed to a hostile work environment and his eventual termination, the lawsuit says.
“Montgomery County is steadfast in our commitment to fiscal responsibility and integrity,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “We do not comment on personnel matters or ongoing litigation.”
The most explosive allegation in the complaint revolves around the conduct of Dean Dortone, the county’s chief financial officer.
Montgomery County gave nearly $5 million to ePlus Inc., a company that provides a wireless communications network, in 2023 although a competitor offered the best technology solution, according to the complaint. Dortone tipped the bid in favor of ePlus, where he had been employed for about five years before joining Montco.
The complaint accuses Dortone of sharing the competitor’s proprietary bid with ePlus to allow the company to one-up its own proposal, in exchange for “lavish trips and golf outings.”
The relationship between Dortone and ePlus did not end when the company received the contract, the complaint alleges. The county’s CFO shared with ePlus the amount set aside in the budget for servicing the communications system, the suit says, allowing the company to charge the maximum allowed instead of invoicing according to need.
“This was gross waste and wrongdoing,” the complaint says.
ePlus did not respond to request for comment.
Olivieri also alleges that the county sent $500,000 to an impostor in 2017 and concealed the wire transfer to avoid embarrassment, and that in 2024 and 2025 the county claimed to have saved over $1 million by revamping printing infrastructure in offices even though the changes “did not happen.”
The suit also says that county officials often use personal emails to keep information from being available through right-to-know requests.
Olivieri says that he was “very vocal” in expressing concerns, using terms such as “fraud,” “waste,” and “illegal” to describe the conduct, and experienced hostility for it.
The original reason given to Olivieri for his termination was a broader “change of direction,” but when he sought unemployment benefits he learned that the county cited performance issues for his dismissal. But Olivieri received an unsolicited severance package of $30,000 in exchange for a legal waiver for retaliation and discrimination claims, the suit says.
The lawsuit calls the severance offer “well-established admissible evidence of discrimination, pretext, and retaliation.”