Ex-Town Employee, Landscaper Sentenced In $2.4M Environmental Crime Scheme

TOWN OF CORTLANDT, NY — A former Town of Cortlandt employee and a landscaping company owner were sentenced for a $2.4 million environmental crime scheme, which involved bribes, bid-rigging, embezzlement of public funds and illegal dumping.

Jay Clayton, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that 56-year-old Glenn Griffin, of Cortlandt, the owner and president of Griffin's Landscaping Corporation, was sentenced to two years in prison for a scheme in which he bribed a Town of Cortlandt employee to gain unauthorized access to a town facility to dump loads of unauthorized materials. In addition, he was also sentenced for a separate bid-rigging scheme. Griffin will also have three years of supervised release and pay a $50,000 fine. He was ordered to forfeit $220,000 and pay $2.4 million in restitution, with $1.2 million due to the Town of Cortlandt and $1.2 million due to the Westchester Land Trust.

Griffin pleaded guilty last August to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Last month, 53-year-old Robert Dyckman, of Verplanck, the former Assistant General Foreman for the Town of Cortlandt, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for his participation in the bribery and dumping scheme. In addition to the prison term, he was sentenced to two years of supervised release and ordered to pay $2.4 million in restitution, with $1.2 million due to the Town of Cortlandt and $1.2 million due to the Westchester Land Trust.

Dyckman pleaded guilty last August to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

SEE ALSO: $2.4M Environmental Crime Scheme Involved Bribery, Illegal Dumping

"Glenn Griffin and Robert Dyckman's corruption not only damaged public land and fragile wetlands but also undermined the public's faith in our government and institutions," Clayton said. "Griffin, a successful business owner and president, bribed Dyckman so that he could save money and, in the process, illegally dump harmful, unauthorized materials on public property generating $2.4 million in damages. Moreover, Griffin then took government money to remove and haul away the very materials that he had illegally dumped. Together with our law enforcement partners, we are committed to rooting out such brazen and wasteful corruption."

According to court documents, from 2018 until February 2020, Griffin and Dyckman engaged in the elaborate unauthorized dumping scheme. Dyckman gave Griffin and his employees unauthorized access to Arlo Lane, a Cortlandt facility, to dump hundreds of large truckloads of unauthorized materials such as thick concrete, cement with rebar, tiles, bricks, large rocks, and soil.

After the illegal dumping, Griffin billed and received payments from the Town of Cortlandt for removing and hauling away the materials that Griffin had illegally dumped at Arlo Lane with Dyckman's help.

Dyckman allowed Griffin and his employees access to Arlo Lane on Saturdays or after working hours. To carry out the scheme, Dyckman would attempt to clear senior Town of Cortlandt management away from Arlo Lane around the time of the unauthorized dumping.

When Dyckman arranged for a subordinate to work overtime when Griffin was dumping unauthorized loads, Dyckman falsely recorded the worker's overtime as having taken place during the week, in order to cover up the scheme.

In exchange for access to Arlo Lane, Griffin paid Dyckman cash bribes.

Between 2015 and 2018, Griffin also engaged in a bid-rigging scheme. In this case, he defrauded the village of Croton-on-Hudson for work on its schools, and the hamlet of Verplanck for work at its fire department.

Griffin made sham, non-competitive, and inflated bids on behalf of entities that he did not work for or have authorization to submit bids on behalf of, so that his actual company would be the low bidder in a pool of purportedly competitive bids and receive public money for work on the projects. Based on these sham, non-competitive, and inflated bids, Griffin was awarded contracts with a combined value of over $133,000.

Clayton praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Westchester County Police Department in this investigation. He also thanked the Westchester County District Attorney's Office and the New York City Department of Investigation for their assistance.

The case is being prosecuted by the Office's White Plains Division, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys David R. Felton and James McMahon in charge of the prosecution.