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Last updated on Wednesday, May 20, 2015
(INDIANAPOLIS) - A Bedford man has been sentenced to 33-months in prison and his son was given one year and a day sentenced.
52-year-old Roger Hardin and his son 26-year-old Zachary Hardin, along with former Bloomington engineering project manager 44-year-old Justin Wykoff, bilked more than $440,000 from Bloomington city coffers. According to court documents in the case, of the $807,000 the city paid to Reliable Concrete from 2011 to 2014, $300,000 was for work that never was done.
"Justin Wykoff was aware of the fact, but authorized the payments to Reliable Concrete," according to court documents in the case. Investigators say the bribes and kickbacks were paid in cash, to avoid a bank trail.
Investigators say the three tried to conceal their crimes by creating false concrete bid proposals after officials discovered money was missing and jobs had not been completed. A few weeks before his arrest, Wykoff fabricated bid proposal forms for projects the company had been paid for but not carried out. He then signed off on the back-dated forms, indicating he had approved the bids.
Federal agents arrested all three men in March 2014 and charged them with a plot overcharging the city for concrete work and then splitting the cash among themselves. Each man was charged with 24 counts of embezzlement, one count of conspiracy to commit a federal crime, 10 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Wykoff has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and 10 counts of wire fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced June 4. He faces a federal prison term of 51 to 63 months, followed by three years on parole.
Both Hardins cooperated with investigators, according to a plea agreement, which reduced the severity of the sentences imposed Monday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis. They pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
52-year-old Roger Hardin will be on parole for three years after he gets out of jail, and his son will serve two years on supervised release.
Roger and his son agreed to turn over to the government $89,592.60 that was in their Reliable Concrete Co. checking account at the time of their arrests last year.
Zachary Hardin has moved out and forfeited ownership of a house at 918 Patton Hill Road in Bedford and also submitted a $5,449 bid bond check toward his part of the restitution.
The plea deals call for a total of $446,335.26 in restitution to the City of Bloomington. All three men are collectively responsible for paying back the money.
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