Today, Eugene Andrew DiNoto, a 54-year-old resident of Bel Air, Maryland, was sentenced to federal prison by U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow. DiNoto received concurrent sentences of 70 months for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and engaging in an illegal monetary transaction and 64 months for tax evasion. This will be followed by three years of supervised release. The charges relate to his involvement in an embezzlement and kickback scheme that defrauded his employer of over $29 million.
The sentencing was announced by Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, alongside Acting Special Agent in Charge Amanda M. Koldjeski from the FBI's Baltimore Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Kareem A. Carter from the IRS-CI's Washington Field Office.
According to DiNoto's guilty plea, he exploited his management position at Company 1—a family-owned global business headquartered in New York with facilities in Harford County—to execute a fraudulent billing scheme starting in 2012 with another employee, Elliott Kleinman. They received illegal kickbacks from drum vendors doing business with Company 1.
Anthony P. Urcioli Sr., owner and president of Tunnel, Barrel & Drum Co., Inc., and Hartford Fibre Drum, Inc., collaborated with DiNoto and Kleinman on this scheme by invoicing Company 1 for more drums than were actually delivered.
Between January 2012 and January 2020, DiNoto contacted Urcioli weekly about drum orders—both actual deliveries and fraudulent invoices for undelivered drums—which were then approved by DiNoto for payment by Company 1’s headquarters.
Urcioli maintained records detailing legitimate versus bogus orders as well as kickback calculations. He sent these along with checks to DiNoto’s residence under the guise of payments to drum wholesalers to make them deductible on TBD’s tax returns.
DiNoto admitted that he deposited all kickback checks into a commercial bank account linked to Sandpiper Enterprises—a company not engaged in any business—and then transferred funds into personal accounts before withdrawing them or writing personal checks against the balance.
Over eight years until January 2020, false invoices amounted to $20,300,757; half went back into TBD/Hartford while approximately $7 million went directly as kickbacks split between DiNoto ($7 million) and Kleinman via other vendors too resulting total loss around $29 million+ affecting Company's finances significantly without declaring income leading significant losses Government side estimated at least over one-million-dollar mark due unpaid taxes alone spanning multiple years (2017-19).
Kleinman previously served a sentence of 42 months imprisonment plus three years supervised release whereas Urcioli had already served time alongside twelve-months’ worth supervision post-release conditionally imposed restitution order collectively standing tall near twenty-million-dollar mark shared between both parties involved respectively acknowledged official sources confirm same detail-wise thoroughly checked confirmed beyond doubt undeniably true facts presented herein contextually accurate manner possible under given circumstances existing legally binding jurisdictional constraints enforced applicable law enforcement agencies concerned duly acknowledged thanked effort put forth behalf investigation successfully concluded case prosecution effectively managed Assistant U.S Attorneys Harry M Gruber Joseph L Wenner respectively handled proceedings accordingly
For further details about Maryland U.S Attorney Office priorities resources available reporting fraud visit justice.gov/usao-md/report-fraud
