Ex-Pace manager sentenced to 1 year and 1 day for taking $290K in kickbacks

A former department manager for Pace faces a year and a day in prison for pocketing over $290,000 in kickbacks from IT contractors seeking work with the suburban bus agency.

Rajinder Sachdeva, a 54-year-old from Schaumburg, was sentenced Friday for taking $292,708 in bribes from contractors in exchange for jobs, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

As Pace’s department manager of applications, Sachdeva oversaw IT implementation throughout the agency’s business units. Prosecutors said he “exerted his influence” with outside vendors, which Pace contracts with for on-site and remote IT support, in order to solicit bribes.

The kickbacks were disguised through payments he directed through companies under his control, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty to one count of solicitation of bribes and gratuities by a public agent earlier this year, after his 2015 arrest.

“Public corruption is a significant problem in this district,” assistant U.S. attorneys Matthew F. Madden and Erika Csicsila argued in the sentencing memorandum. “The defendant repeatedly used his position at a transportation agency to line his own pockets.”