Former Telecom Construction CEO Pleads Guilty: Looted Over $5M, Paid Over $1M in Bribes, Agrees to Pay Over $25M in Restitution
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced on November 12, 2026, that Anthony Tepedino, the founder, former chief executive officer and owner of a now-defunct telecommunications construction and engineering company formerly based in New Jersey, pleaded guilty that day in federal court to commercial bribery, fraud and aggravated identity theft offenses. Tepedino, 62, of Manalapan, New Jersey, agreed to forfeit more than $5 million in proceeds and to pay restitution of more than $25 million. He is scheduled to be sentenced on February 17, 2027, before U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman.
According to court filings, the company operated for over a decade, eventually earning hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue and employing more than 500 people. From at least 2017 through 2024, Tepedino ran a series of schemes to defraud the company's largest customer, its largest creditor bank and the company itself, forming shell companies, creating fake invoices and looting the company of more than $5 million, using some of the proceeds to pay himself, his relatives and his creditors.
From about 2018 through September 2024, Tepedino and a co-conspirator submitted false invoices to generate payments to a non-operational shell company the co-conspirator controlled, with the co-conspirator impersonating a supposed third-party owner, stealing more than $5 million in total. From about 2020 through September 2024, Tepedino used stolen money to fund more than $1 million in commercial bribes to a senior manager at the customer company, in exchange for steering millions of dollars in new contracts and work to his company and approving its invoices. The customer paid his company more than $300 million over those roughly four years.
During the same period, Tepedino also defrauded the company's largest lender, obtaining more than $18 million in commercial credit in late 2021 and early 2022 through false statements and omissions about the shell company and the bribery. In and after September 2024, he sought to get both co-conspirators to adopt false exculpatory narratives. After the crimes were discovered, the company went out of business, its employees lost their jobs and the bank was left with more than $25 million in unpaid loans.
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said Tepedino embezzled millions of dollars and paid more than a million dollars in commercial bribes, funding a lavish lifestyle while his company and creditors were left holding the bag. Tepedino pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services wire fraud, carrying a maximum of five years in prison, and one count of aggravated identity theft, carrying a mandatory consecutive two years, with the sentence to be determined by the judge. The case was investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, the New York City Department of Investigation, the FDIC Office of Inspector General and IRS Criminal Investigation. (Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国司法部总部大楼入口标识（联邦固定图库）。 / Photo: U.S. Department of Justice headquarters entrance sign (federal asset library).
