Three More Defendants Sentenced in Attorney General’s Investigation at UMBC

BALTIMORE, MD (December 5, 2008) - Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced that Andrew M. Reider, 49, of Powhurst Court in Perry Hall, was sentenced on December 1, 2008, to serve 18 months in jail following convictions for Procurement Fraud, Felony Theft, and Bribery. Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge John Grason Turnbull, II, suspended the remainder of the 5 year sentence, and ordered the former UMBC Construction Services Project Manager to undergo 3 years of supervised probation when he is released, with the special condition that he pay $82,000.00 in restitution to UMBC while on probation. This figure represents the value of the bribes made to Reider over almost five years by construction company representatives Dennis Roberts, Joseph Cheek and others seeking contracts at UMBC.

Reider previously pled guilty to the charges, admitting that he developed and carried out a scheme to create and submit false and inflated invoices to the University, which resulted in the theft of over $136,000 from UMBC. About half of the stolen funds benefited Reider, and the other half was used to renovate the home of Reider’s immediate supervisor, George Alinsod. Reider admitted to soliciting bribes from various contractors for free home improvements, mobile phone service, golf outings, and entertainment expenses. In exchange, Reider used his position as a Project Manager to illegally steer UMBC construction projects to contractors willing to pay bribes. One contractor’s representative who bribed Reider was Dennis Owen Roberts.

Roberts, 57, a former project manager at Hayes Construction Company, was also sentenced on December 1, 2008 to serve 30 days of a 2-year sentence and to pay a fine of $1,000.00, following his 2006 conviction for bribing Reider.

In the third related sentencing, Christopher J. Keehner, president of DS Pipe & Supply Company, Inc., was sentenced to serve a 1-year suspended sentence, as recommended by the State, following his June 17, 2008, conviction for Conspiracy to Steal approximately $24,000.00 from UMBC. Keehner agreed to cooperate with prosecutors to testify truthfully if his testimony were required. He admitted inflating two invoices for pipe valves supplied to a mechanical contractor working on a UMBC project, knowing that the contractor and UMBC Construction Manager George Alinsod were part of the plot to pass the inflated bill to UMBC for payment. Keehner recently paid back the $24,000.00 stolen from UMBC during this conspiracy.

The cases are part of a series of prosecutions by the Attorney General’s Criminal Division and the Maryland State Police, with the assistance of UMBC Police and other UMBC officials, and the University System of Maryland Internal Audit Office.