A Hopewell woman was sentenced today to 37 months in prison for bribing a former Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) supervisory engineer at the VA’s campus in East Orange in order to fraudulently obtain $6 million in construction contracts, including those reserved for service-disabled, veteran owned small businesses, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Donna Doremus, 47, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Mary L. Cooper to three counts of a four-count information charging her with one count of bribing a public official, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and two counts of making and subscribing to false federal tax returns. Judge Cooper imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Cooper ordered Doremus to serve one year of supervised release. Restitution will be determined at a hearing on Aug. 26, 2015. As part of her plea, she agreed to a forfeiture money judgment of $671,975.
On Sept.18, 2013, Machinga pleaded guilty before Judge Cooper in connection with his accepting kickbacks from Doremus and engaging in a scheme to defraud the VA. He was sentenced to 46 months in prison on June 30, 2015.