A Mechanicsburg businessman is now behind bars. He’s sentenced to 87 months for misappropriation of federal funds, fraud and money laundering. More than 4 and a half years ago, contractors left the Capitol View building at the Commerce Center on Cameron and Herr Streets unpaid and unemployed.
U.S. Attorney William Behe says, “That opportunity he saw to profit from this illegally caused everything to crumble.”
In November 2011, Dodd pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering and misusing funds. He’s been sentenced to over 7 years in federal prison. It’s 21 months less than the maximum sentence.
U.S. Attorney Peter Smith says, “He gave up the right to appeal to litigate further all the issues involving the restitution in the amount of the loss which we think is a value of the Government to put a close to that issue.”
Federal judge Sylvia Rambo ordered Dodd to pay around $21 million in restitution to a number of victims including the City of Harrisburg and Dauphin County. But the Director of Housing, Roy Christ, says Dodd’s decision not to pay back a community block grant loan will affect 187 families for the next 11 years.
Christ says, “Those families that may be torn apart because they can’t afford to buy a home. These programs were there to help them.”
Christ says low to moderate income families rely on funding to live. He says, “That money would have gone to repair homes, put furnaces in, to do all things in the community and typically fix 17 homes a year.”
Victims say Dodd’s sentence is a moral victory, but not good enough.
Christ says, “Whether he’s sorry or not, that’s up to him to decide but for me, the impact for my community is so far-reaching, I can not calculate the damage done.”
Richard McBride was the President of Herre Bros., Incorporated. He and his contractors began work on the Capital View project in 2007. As a result of non-payment of $1.2 million by Dodd, McBride says he walked off the job in 2008. If you’d like to view McBride’s written statement he read aloud at the sentencing click here.
Capitol View’s new owner, Moran Industries, is planning to finish the 215,000 square foot building for its use and to lease to other companies.