Contractor guilty of fraud and money laundering on $15m contract

Image: United States Department of JusticeVectorization: Ali Zifan, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The founder of a construction contractor based in Charleston, South Caroline, faces years in prison after being found guilty of fraud and money laundering on a $15 million contract.

Antoine “Tony” Berenyi, 63, founder of Berenyi Inc. entered an illegal kickback agreement with Jaymin Vinson, in late 2017, according to evidence.

Vinson was an employee of Nucor Steel Gallatin.

The pair agreed that Vinson would help steer a £15 million contract for a $650 million Nucor mill expansion contract to Berenyi’s company and provide other services on behalf of Berenyi within Nucor.

In exchange, Berenyi’s company would pay Vinson a 15% kickback on the contract, without Nucor’s knowledge or approval.

Berenyi’s kickback payments continued into 2019 and totalled $452,000.

Berenyi was indicted in October 2022 following an FBI investigation. Last week, he was found guilty by a federal jury of one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, 14 counts of wire fraud, and 10 counts of money laundering.

He faces up to 20 years in prison on the conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud count; up to 20 years in prison on each of the wire fraud counts, and not more than 10 years in prison on each count of money laundering. However, the Court must consider the US Sentencing Guidelines and the applicable federal sentencing statutes before imposing a sentence.