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

SHARE Ex-Pace manager sentenced to 1 year and 1 day for taking $290K in kickbacks
na08_pace_p2_38094474_e1528591151762.jpg

Sun-Times file photo

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.”

The Latest
The man was found unresponsive in an alley in the 10700 block of South Lowe Avenue, police said.
The man suffered head trauma and was pronounced dead at University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.
Another federal judge in Chicago who also has dismissed gun cases based on the same Supreme Court ruling says the high court’s decision in what’s known as the Bruen case will “inevitably lead to more gun violence, more dead citizens and more devastated communities.”
Women make up just 10% of those in careers such as green infrastructure and clean and renewable energy, a leader from Openlands writes. Apprenticeships and other training opportunities are some of the ways to get more women into this growing job sector.
Chatterbox doesn’t seem aware that it’s courteous to ask questions, seek others’ opinions.