TRENTON, NJ--The owner of several New Jersey construction companies is headed to prison after pleading guilty to raking in millions of dollars from a federal program designed to help disabled veterans.

Donna Doremus, 47, the owner of Tyro General Construction, Storm General Construction and DMD Drafting, had been charged with bribing a public official, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and making and submitting false federal tax returns.

www.va.gov

Doremus' construction companies were awarded more than  $6 million in contracts to perform work at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in East Orange, NJ.

Doremus will spend 37 months in prison, under plea agreements announced Monday (July 13).

Doremus said she paid $671,000 in bribes to a former Department of Veterans Affairs supervisory engineer at the VA’s campus in East Orange in order to obtain $6 million in construction contracts, including those reserved for service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses, according to an announcement by U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.

Bribes and Lies

Prosecutors say Doremus paid the bribes to Jarod Machinga, 45, over a period of five years, beginning in 2007.

As a supervisory engineer, Machinga had the authority and influence to direct certain VA construction contracts to particular companies. He directed more than $6 million in contracts to Doremus’ companies for work at the VA Medical Center in East Orange, prosecutors said.

Moreover, Doremus and Machinga falsely represented to the VA that Tyro General Construction was a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business in order to obtain a contract worth $3 million with the VA.

The company was not qualified to participate in the program, which sets aside federal contracts for small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans.

Official White House Photo / Pete Souza

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Program, established in 1999, is part of a federal effort to increase the number of contracts awarded to small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans.

Authorities also said that for the tax years 2009 and 2010, Doremus falsely reported that certain bribe payments she made to Machinga, as well as some personal expenditures, were her companies’ business expenses.

As a result, she failed to pay $250,374 in federal income taxes that she owed to the Internal Revenue Service, Fishman said.

Sentencing Details

In addition to the prison term, Doremus was ordered to serve one year of supervised release.

As part of her plea, she also agreed to a forfeiture money judgment of $671,975.

Restitution in the case will be determined in August.

In June, Machinga was sentenced to serve 46 months in prison. He pleaded guilty in 2013 to one count of honest services wire fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of engaging in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.