BOSTON — A former Stoneham police officer has been sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to a criminal bribery and kickback scheme that netted him millions of dollars in Mass Save contracts, the U.S. Attorney said Friday.
Christopher Ponzo, 50, of North Reading, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel Gorton to 27 months in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement.
Ponzo was also ordered to pay a $300,000 fine.
Ponzo was indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2023 along with his contractor brother, Joseph Ponzo.
Joseph Ponzo also pleaded guilty to four counts of causing false tax returns to be filed with the Internal Revenue Service from 2016 to 2019. His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 28.
The brothers were arrested on the charges in April 2022.
“Virtually every Massachusetts resident who uses energy is surcharged and pays for Mass Save,” then-U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said in a statement following their arrests in April 2022.
“These payments are mandatory and amount to hundreds of millions of dollars,” Rollins said at the time. “Defrauding the Mass Save program for millions of dollars means we are all left paying the bill. It is corruption at its core and will not be tolerated.”
From 2013 to 2022, the brothers conspired to bribe associates of a Mass Save lead vendor company that netted the pair millions of dollars in Mass Save contracts, prosecutors said.
Mass Save is a program that is designed to help Massachusetts residents manage their energy and utility costs.
Under the program, utility companies pick lead vendors to approve and select contractors to perform energy improvement work for residential customers. This contracting work – performed by contractors at no-cost or reduced cost to the customer – is then paid for by the lead vendor company with Mass Save funds.
Prosecutors said the Ponzo brothers paid vendor company employees in home bathroom fixtures, a computer, free electrical work, and a John Deere tractor in addition to weekly cash bribes ranging anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000. In exchange, the brothers received a procurement of millions in Mass Save contracts with the vendor company.
From 2013 to 2017, Christopher Ponzo paid one associate $1,000 in cash on a weekly basis, prosecutors said. At times, Christopher Ponzo paid that associate $5,000 to $10,000 in cash, telling the associate that the extra money was from Joseph Ponzo for his part in the bribery scheme.
In return for these payments, the associate helped Joseph Ponzo set up a shell company, Air Tight, to do insulation work and get approved as a lead vendor contractor under the Mass Save program. Prosecutors said Joseph Ponzo put his spouse’s name on Air Tight incorporation documents and licenses to hide his involvement in the corruption.
Joseph Ponzo collected over $7 million under the Mass Save program, despite having no professional experience in residential insulation work, prosecutors said.
When that associate left the company in 2017, prosecutors said the Ponzos recruited another associate to the bribery-kickback scheme, paying them thousands of dollars in cash from approximately 2018 to 2022, and also hiring a relative of the second associate as part of the ongoing scheme.
Joseph Ponzo also filed false tax returns from 2016 to 2019 by claiming hundreds of thousands of dollars in false business deductions, prosecutors 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 stores were business-related, prosecutors said.
But Joseph Ponzo actually used the company credit card at those stores to buy gift cards that he and his spouse then used to make thousands of dollars in personal purchases, prosecutors said.
In April 2022, both Joseph Ponzo and Christopher Ponzo lied to federal agents when they denied making bribe payments to any company employees, prosecutors said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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