Four Former National Grid Managers Arrested in Long Island Bribery Scheme

Five men who once controlled which contractors won National Grid maintenance work on Long Island were arrested on federal bribery charges after allegedly collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks over nearly a decade, prosecutors announced Thursday.

Four of the men were former managers in National Grid's facilities department, positions that gave them direct authority over the awarding of no-bid maintenance contracts. Prosecutors say they exploited that access for personal gain. All five were named in a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court and are accused of conspiring to violate the Travel Act by taking bribes and kickbacks in exchange for steering contracts to specific companies the utility did business with.

Charged in the complaint are Devraj Balbir, 33, of North Bellmore; Patrick McCrann, 57, of Selden; Jevan Seepaul, 36, of Rockville Centre; and Richard Zavada, 65, of Hicksville. Ricardo Garcia, 48, of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, was also charged. The names of the contractors who allegedly paid bribes were not disclosed in the complaint.

Prosecutors say the scheme ran from 2013 to 2020, during which the men sought out and accepted kickbacks from contractors in connection with the awarding of National Grid maintenance work. One exchange captured in the complaint illustrated the scheme's escalating nature: a contractor, after being approached for a bribe, replied, "I'll ask for a nice one next time," which prosecutors said indicated the next bribe would be larger.

Mark Lesko, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, described the conduct as a calculated abuse of insider position. The defendants made "corrupt demands for bribes and kickbacks to line their own pockets and upgrade their lifestyles while putting the contractors at risk of losing business if they did not comply," Lesko said. He announced the arrests alongside William F. Sweeney Jr., assistant director-in-charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

"This office is committed to protecting the integrity of the bidding process and ensuring that businesses compete on a level, honest playing field," Lesko added.

The arrests were described as part of a broader federal investigation that is also examining the conduct of a city councilwoman, her sister and the Brooklyn Democratic leader's husband, though those individuals were not named in the complaint.