CONTRACTOR SENTENCED TO JAIL

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announced today that Bill Hatzi, aka Vasilios Hatzianoglou, was sentenced* yesterday evening in Baltimore City Circuit Court to 360 days in jail and a fine of $5,000 on his conviction after trial on five counts of perjury and five counts of procurement fraud. Hatzi, 47, was convicted after trial at the end of April of lying in five separate bids for State construction jobs. In bidding on State jobs, you must certify that you have never been convicted of certain crimes, including theft. Hatzi was convicted in 1991 on two counts of theft, but lied about that conviction in his Bid Affidavits, by claiming he had no convictions at all.

In the mid 1990's, Hatzi’s companies - Power Dynamics and Vastec - frequently bid on State construction, maintenance and repair contracts ranging in amount from $22,000 to $92,000, for State facilities. Even though he was awarded many of these contracts, he failed to complete most of them, which eventually led to the State debarring him in 2002 from ever working for the State.

Hatzi currently resides in Forest Hill, Maryland.

The bids on which the defendant lied about his convictions related to construction and maintenance jobs at the William Donald Schaefer Tower in Baltimore City, Springfield State Hospital, Gunpowder Falls State Park, the Police and Correctional Training Commission in Woodstock, MD., and Cedarville State Forest in Prince George’s County.

In imposing sentence, Judge John P. Miller commented that Hatzi’s lack of respect for the system was "outrageous" and referred specifically to his multiple criminal convictions and his 76 traffic citations. In addition to the theft conviction, Hatzi has also been convicted of insurance fraud, a third degree sex offense and criminal non-support (on the last of which he was given probation before judgment). All previous convictions had resulted in probation only.

"We will continue to prosecute cases where the integrity of the State’s procurement process has been tainted by willfully perjurious conduct," Attorney General Curran said. "I appreciate the seriousness with which Judge Miller viewed this case."

The case was investigated by the Office of the Attorney General, Criminal Investigations Division, and the Maryland State Police.

*The conviction was reversed on appeal by judgment dated April 27, 2005.

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