Investigations

On October 24, 2022, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey entered into a civil settlement agreement with C. Abbonizio Contractors, Inc., and the company’s president, Peter Abbonizio. The company agreed to pay $375,000 and Abbonizio agreed to pay $25,000 to resolve civil False Claims Act violations. Both allegedly falsely certified that two Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) companies, Sanzo Ltd. and Multifacet LLC, performed work on the Federal Highway Administration-funded Direct Connection Project. This New Jersey DOT project aims to provide infrastructure improvements to highways in Camden County. According to the allegations, Sanzo and Multifacet billed C. Abbonizio Contractors for work performed by other non-DBEs on the project, along with a mark-up for their participation.

 

DOT-OIG conducted this investigation with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey-OIG.