GRAND JURY INDICTS FORMER DREDGING CHIEF
JOSEPH A. SLOBODZIAN | Dec 26, 1988 7:00PM EST
JOC.com

The former head of a Camden, N.J., dredging company has been indicted on charges of lying to a federal grand jury investigating bid-rigging in the dredging industry.

August D. Pistilli, of Wenonah, N.J., was indicted Dec. 21 by a federal grand jury inPhiladelphia on six counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice, said a spokesman for the federal Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the investigative arm of the Defense Department.Mr. Pistilli is the former president of American Dredging Co. of Camden and was a member of the Delaware River Port Authority from 1987 until April.

If convicted on all counts, Mr. Pistilli could be sentenced to a maximum of 35 years in prison and fined $65,000, the spokesman said.

Mr. Pistilli's attorney, J. Clayton Undercofler III, said Mr. Pistilli denies the charges and is prepared to defend himself."

According to the investigative-service spokesman, Mr. Pistilli's indictment stems from false testimony he allegedly gave two years ago to a grand jury investigating bid-rigging in dredging contracts awarded by the Army Corps of Engineers for New York harbor, the Delaware River, upper Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean waterfront near Atlantic City.

The investigation has already resulted in guilty pleas by several other companies and company officials. Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. of Oak Brook, Ill., pleaded guilty in March and agreed to pay $8.26 million in fines and damages.

Weeks Dredging Co. of Newark, N.J., pleaded guilty in December 1987 and has been fined $1.2 million, the investigative-service spokesman said.

American Dredging has not been indicted, although in July 1987, the company was suspended from corps projects after allegations of bid-rigging. The suspension ended in December 1987.