‘Pure greed.’ Businessman sentenced to prison for kickback scheme on Kentucky project

A business owner who took part in a kickback scheme to get a lucrative contract at a Kentucky steel mill has been sentenced to two years and six months in prison.

The sentence for Antoine “Tony” Berenyi includes a $50,000 fine.

In addition, U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning ordered Berenyi to forfeit $396,500 to the government and pay $753,625 in restitution to the owner of the mill, according to court records.

Berenyi founded Berenyi Inc., a company in Charleston, South Carolina, that provides engineering, architecture and construction services, according to its site.

The company received a contract to provide construction management services on an expansion of the Nucor Steel Gallatin LLC plant in Northern Kentucky.

Jaymin Vinson, who was once an engineer at the plant, said in a court document that at a meeting at a casino in 2017, Berenyi proposed paying him in secret to help Berenyi get the $14.9 million job.

Vinson said Berenyi ultimately paid him $425,125, building the kickbacks into charges to Nucor without the company’s knowledge.

Berenyi argued that Vinson was behind the kickback scheme and shook him down for payments, but the jury convicted Berenyi on one charge of honest services wire fraud, 14 counts of wire fraud and 10 charges of money laundering.

The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney James T. Chapman, said in a sentencing memorandum that the Nucor job was the largest contract Berenyi’s company had ever worked on.

“Berenyi committed these crimes out of pure greed — he saw a contract opportunity bigger than he had ever seen, and the potential to continue in similar high-cost projects with Nucor in the future — and he cheated — he rigged the system — to ensure he got on board with the mill expansion,” the prosecutor wrote.

Bunning sentenced Berenyi March 1, ordering him to report to prison on April 2.

One of Berenyi’s attorneys did not respond to an inquiry on whether he plans to appeal.

Vinson pleaded guilty to fraud but has not been sentenced.