The “Waste Management Business” has long been associated with graft. On Tuesday, federal prosecutors provided the latest example, indicting trash companies and landfill employees from Baltimore City in connection with a bribery scheme.
U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein’s office alleges that trash haulers bribed landfill employees to forego dumping fees, and stealing scrap metal. In all, the scheme cheated the city out of $7 million over a 14-year period beginning in 2001, court records state.
The bribes from the trash companies ranged from $50-$100 a visit, and were sometimes paid multiple times per day. In return, nine differnt city public works employees working at the landfill didn’t activate the scales, saving the companies dumping fees. The commercial companies were not named.
The scrap metal indictment accuses to employees of “junking,” in which they would use their own trucks to sell scrap metal from the landfills to the tune of as much as $300 per truckload.
