NEWARK – A South River man is charged with various offenses related to selling commercial and industrial products to numerous public and private entities and thereby defrauding customers.
Adam Martignetti, 43, a former salesman at Bayway Lumber in Linden, was charged on March 28 with one count of conspiracy to commit fraud, four counts of corruptly giving valuable items to agents of entities receiving federal funds and one count of providing false testimony to a federal grand jury, according to a statement provided by Acting U.S. Attorney William E. Fitzpatrick.
According to the indictment, from 2011-13, Martignetti allegedly conspired with others to defraud certain customers by fraudulently billing them for free items given to the customers’ employees and by fraudulently providing lower-quality products than were actually purchased, according to the statement.
Martignetti allegedly gave a variety of valuable items to employees of Amtrak, the City of Elizabeth and the Plainfield Board of Education, including a laptop, several iPads, a camera, a sound system, patio furniture and other merchandise.
Under the supervision of Robert Dattilo, president and partial owner of Bayway Lumber, Martignetti allegedly overbilled those entities to recover the gifts’ costs and generate additional revenue, according to Fitzpatrick.
Dattilo reportedly kept a running tally of how much Martignetti and others fraudulently billed the entities to ensure that Bayway Lumber recovered the full cost of the free items, according to the statement.
Investigators also allege that Martignetti participated in product substitution fraud in which Bayway supplied lower quality products than what was actually ordered and paid for. When Consolidated Edison Company of New York (ConEd) ordered plywood that was graded to meet certain specifications, Martignetti, reportedly at Dattilo’s instruction, allegedly sent lower grade or ungraded plywood on a routine basis, all while charging ConEd the higher price, Fitzpatrick said in the statement.
Then, while appearing as a witness under oath before a federal grand jury in March 2013, Martignetti reportedly falsely testified that he had never given free Bayway Lumber items to employees from the City of Elizabeth, and that the city was never charged for items that were for the employees’ personal use, according to the statement.
The conspiracy to commit wire fraud charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Each charge of corruptly giving valuable items to agents of federally-funded entities carries a maximum of 10 years in prison. Knowingly making false statements before a grand jury carries a maximum of five years in prison. Each count also carries a maximum $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, according to the statement.
Dattilo previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. He was sentenced to 48 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $708,386 in July 2016, according to Fitzpatrick.