A former Stoneham police officer and his brother, who owned an electrical contracting company, pleaded guilty to a bribery and kickback scheme that got them millions of dollars in contracts, federal authorities said.
Joseph Ponzo, 51, of Stoneham, and Christopher Ponzo, 50, of North Reading, both pleaded guilty to several charges related to running a scheme where they paid tens of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to an associate in exchange for millions of dollars in Mass Save contracts, acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy said.
State law requires utility companies to surcharge all Massachusetts customers on their energy use, Levy said. The extra money, which amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars each year, is supposed to be divided among the utility companies to fund energy efficiency projects.
Mass Save is a partnership between the state and utility companies that helps people fund these projects, Levy said.
Under Mass Save, the utility companies choose a vendor, like Company A, to choose a contractor to work on these energy efficiency projects for free or for a reduced cost, Levy said.
Christopher Ponzo paid Associate 1 $1,000 in cash weekly from 2013 to 2017, Levy said. Sometimes he’d pay the associate $5,000 to $10,000 in cash, telling them the extra money was from Joseph Ponzo for his part in the scheme.
In return for the payments, Associate 1, helped Joseph Ponzo set up a shell company called Air Tight, where he’d do insulation work and get approved as a Company A contractor under the Mass Save program, Levy said.
Joseph Ponzo put his spouse’s name on Air Tight paperwork related to the shell company to hide his involvement in the scheme, Levy said. He collected over $7 million under the Mass Save program.
Christopher Ponzo and Joseph Ponzo recruited Associate 2 into the scheme after Associate 1 left Company A in 2017, Levy said. Associate 2 worked with the men from around 2018 to 2022, he was paid thousands of dollars.
Joseph Ponzo helped file fake tax returns from 2016 to 2019 by claiming hundreds of thousands of dollars in false business deductions, Levy said.
“To disguise personal expenses as business deductions, Joseph Ponzo used his company credit card to make hundreds of thousands of dollars in purchases at The Home Depot, Lowes, and Staples, claiming to his tax preparers that charges at those establishments were business-related,” Levy said.
But Joseph Ponzo used the company credit card at those stores to buy gift cards that he and his spouse would use to buy personal items, Levy said.
Joseph Ponzo and Christopher falsely denied making bribe payments to Company A employees to federal agents in April 2022, Levy said.
In a statement, Stoneham Police Chief James O’Connor said, “These crimes committed by former Officer Ponzo were related to his outside business interests and were not connected to his work as a Stoneham Police Officer.”
Joseph Ponzo hasn‘t worked for the Stoneham Police Department since 2022, O’Connor added.
