Allentown engineering exec latest to plead in pay-to-play probe
An Allentown engineering-firm executive has become the latest figure tied to an ongoing pay-to-play probe that has already implicated business owners, political operatives, public officials, and mayors in two Pennsylvania cities.
An Allentown engineering-firm executive has become the latest figure tied to an ongoing pay-to-play probe that has already implicated business owners, political operatives, public officials, and mayors in two Pennsylvania cities.
Matthew McTish, president of McTish, Kunkel & Associates, pleaded guilty in federal court in Philadelphia last week to conspiracy to commit bribery, according to filings unsealed Tuesday.
McTish admitted that he gave more than $9,000 in campaign contributions and helped raised thousands more over the last six years for public officials in Allentown and Reading after they threatened to cut off his company's access to contracts if he did not financially support their campaigns.
Court filings suggest that former Reading Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer and Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, a onetime U.S. Senate candidate, were particularly active in extorting donations from engineering firms like McTish Kunkel, whose bottom lines relied on city contracts.
The mayors "expected that for these firms, making thousands of dollars worth of campaign contributions was more acceptable than risking being excluded from consideration for millions of dollars' worth of [city] contracts," prosecutors said in filings.
McTish's lawyer, Laurel Brandstetter, said Tuesday her client had stepped down as president of his firm and is cooperating with investigators.
"Since Matt's name first surfaced in the FBI investigation last summer, he has been coming to terms with his role in the culture of corruption that was once rampant in Reading and Allentown," she said. "Matt participated solely out of concern that if he didn't, his firm would lose business to a firm that did."
The case is not the first time McTish or his firm - which specializes in engineering, planning, environmental, and construction management work - has been linked to pay-to-play schemes. In 2014, a former ranking officer of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission told a Dauphin County judge that he steered work toward the firm after McTish showered him with gifts, including travel vouchers, free use of a Pittsburgh apartment, and tickets to Pittsburgh Pirates games.
The case is only the latest to emerge from an investigation that since last year has implicated Spencer and Pawlowski in schemes to extort contributions with promises tied to government contracts.
Neither man has been charged or named by prosecutors, but descriptions in court filings of the elected officials who extorted McTish and others match Spencer's and Pawlowski's careers.
According to McTish's charging documents, Pawlowski came to him within 10 days of launching his April 2015 campaign for U.S. Senate.
Prosecutors say that Pawlowski promised McTish that he would be able to steer more government work toward the engineering firm should he be elected. He allegedly stressed that his support would be contingent upon McTish's raising at least $21,600 for his campaign prior to the race's first financial reporting deadline.
Last month, Michael Fleck - who served as a consultant to Pawlowski's Senate bid and his mayoral campaigns as well as an adviser to Spencer - pleaded guilty to conspiracy and bribery. Sources close to the case have said that Fleck secretly recorded conversations with both men for the FBI.
Pawlowski abandoned the Senate race days after agents raided city halls in Allentown and Reading last summer.
Fleck also worked on the 2014 gubernatorial campaign of Pennsylvania State Treasurer Rob McCord, who awaits sentencing after pleading guilty last year to attempting to extort campaign donations. McCord also let agents record his conversations, sources have said.
The probe already has led to guilty pleas from a prominent developer and three city officials in Allentown as well as Reading's former city council president and a special assistant to its mayor.
McTish faces sentencing Aug. 2 before U.S. District Judge Juan R. Sánchez.
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