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Federal charges for two ex-employees of Bloomington

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (WISH) – The City of Bloomington’s former engineering services manager has pleaded guilty to receiving kickbacks on city contracts.

It’s one of two public corruption charges to hit the city of Bloomington in recent months, and U.S Attorney Josh Minkler says these offenders will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

“There will be no home detention, there will be no home detention, there will be no parole. There will be no work release. He will go to federal prison,” he said.

Justin Wycoff was an employee of Bloomington for more than 20 years. Federal prosecutors say he spent about three of those years swindling the city he worked for.

He’s now pleaded guilty to soliciting and receiving bribes from Reliable Construction Company in exchange for awarding the company more than $800,000 in city contracts.

About $300,000 of that was for work never completed.

“He used his position to get kickbacks, essentially putting a big “for sale” sign in front of the City of Bloomington Engineering Services. The message from the United States Attorney’s Office is this: the local government in the state of indiana is not for sale,” said Minkler.

Minkler also announced the indictment of Judith Siegel, a former Bloomington Parks and Recreation Office Manager.

She’s being charged with scheming to steal more than $400,000 from the Parks department.

“This is the second time in ten months the United States Attorney’s office has come to the city of Bloomington to discuss a public corruption prosecution. One time is one time too many,” Minkler said.

Wycoff will be sentenced at a later date, but he could face up to 63 months in federal prison.

He and the operators of Reliable Construction will be responsible for repaying the city more than $400,000 in restitution.