Michael Downey, 55, admitted to U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan that he had approved fraudulent invoices from Linden-based Bayway Lumber and obtained gifts from the company purchased with proceeds from the overbilling.
Downey entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiring to commit mail fraud U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey.
According to court documents, Downey billed the city of Elizabeth in 2010 and 2013, for Bayway Lumber as the company did not apply contractually agreed-upon discounts and were sometimes higher than the prices listed in an industrial supply catalogue they were using.
Downey approved the fraudulent invoices, and the company sent them by mail to the city. Elizabeth mailed payment back to Bayway's office.
Company employees then used some of the proceeds from the overbililng to buy more than $1,200 worth of personal items for Downey, including a barbecue, an outdoor patio set and umbrella, and a $500 gift card to an electronic store.
Downey is required to forfeit the property and to pay Elizabeth $4,691.88 in restitution.
He faces a possible maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 criminal fine and three years of supervised release. He was released from custody on $100,000 bail and is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 20.
Downey retired from the city on June 1st 2016.