PACE official took $280K in kickbacks, feds say

A PACE manager took more than $280,000 in kickbacks after using his position to land work for IT contractors at the suburban bus agency, federal authorities said Thursday.

Rajinder Sachdeva, 51, of Schaumburg, was arrested Wednesday in the northwest suburb where he lives. U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan E. Cox set his bail at $150,000 during a hearing Thursday afternoon.

His attorneys, Darryl Goldberg and Ralph Meczyk, said they look forward to Sachdeva’s vindication.

“We’re not quite sure a crime was committed,” Goldberg said, “and we’re looking forward to clearing his good name.”

The PACE applications manager worked for the suburban bus division of the Regional Transportation Authority since January 2010. Sachdeva allegedly pocketed the kickbacks either from the IT contractors themselves or from a company that employed the contractors — a company in which Sachdeva allegedly held a minor stake under his wife’s name.

While one contractor worked at PACE, that company paid Sachdeva and his wife more than $64,000, federal officials said.

Sachdeva also allegedly told another contractor to submit invoices for work at PACE to that company using the false name “Sue Peters.” PACE ultimately paid the company for the invoice, but the feds say Sachdeva told a cooperating witness to pay the contractor only 80 percent of what the company had billed.

During a secretly recorded conversation at a Schaumburg McDonald’s in January, Sachdeva told a cooperating witness to characterize payments to Sachdeva as “rent” payments for tax purposes because the witness kept furniture and office equipment in Sachdeva’s basement, according to a complaint.

PACE chairman Richard Kwasneski issued a statement after Sachdeva’s arrest saying the agency cooperated in the investigation and would continue to assist federal authorities.

“We place the utmost importance on maintaining the public’s trust, so it was without hesitation that we actively partnered with the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office over the last several months as they worked to conduct the investigation,” Kwasneski said in the statement.