Investigations

On February 23, 2018, Talib Lokhandwala, former senior director, New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA), was sentenced in U.S. District Court, Brooklyn, New York, to 46 months’ incarceration, 3 years’ supervised release, a forfeiture of $136,420, a $20,000 fine, and a $100 special court assessment.

 

On October 3, 2017, Lokhandwala pleaded guilty to bribery charges in connection with his role in soliciting and accepting bribe payments from two contractors that were scheduled to perform work on federally funded NYCTA subway station projects. Lokhandwala and his wife created a consulting company named Bhavna Associates for the sole purpose of receiving and disguising these payments. He admitted that between March 2009 and May 2015, he received a total of $152,420 in checks from several contractors in exchange for favorable treatment. He was the construction manager assigned to their projects and helped the contractors expedite work orders and engineer’s drawings, submit bid packages, and facilitate any issues that arose.

 

DOT-OIG conducted this investigation with the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority OIG.