Payroll Kickback

An Indian American couple who fled to India has been indicted in what Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for Manhattan, dubbed “one of the largest and most brazen frauds ever committed against the City of New York.”

Reddy Allen and Padma Allen and their company, TechnoDyne L.L.C., of Wayne, N.J., are among 11 people indicted in New York City’s $600 million CityTime project intended to modernize the timekeeping and payroll operations for more than 160,000 city employees.

According to the indictment, the city paid $600 million to Science Applications International, two of whose employees in turn directed $400 million to TechnoDyne, in return for $15 million in kickbacks. Technodyne is accused of paying $75 million to two subcontractors, who paid $25 million in kickbacks to Mark Mazer, a New York City consultant responsible for quality assurance on the project, who allegedly steered the city’s contracts.