Construction executive avoids jail in bribe case

A key witness in the federal government’s investigation of top executives of a prominent Washington-based development company was sentenced to six months’ home detention and three years’ probation yesterday.

Fernando J. Villegas, chief executive of International Builders Inc., pleaded guilty in a scheme to bribe a former top deputy at the District’s Office of Property Management.

“I feel a tremendous amount of guilt and remorse,” he told U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina.

Citing Villegas’ cooperation in the investigation and decision to plead guilty nearly three years ago, Judge Urbina granted requests by defense and government lawyers to keep Villegas out of prison. He had faced up to five years’ imprisonment.

Villegas testified during the trial of Douglas Development Corp. executives Douglas Jemal; his son, Norman; and Blake C. Esherick, all of whom faced decades in prison if convicted of bribery and tax charges.

All three defendants were acquitted of corruption charges.

Douglas Jemal received probation on a wire-fraud charge, and Esherick was sentenced to eight months in prison on tax charges. Norman Jemal was found not guilty of all charges.

Separately, two other Douglas Development executives have pleaded guilty to tax charges.

Villegas admitted bribing Michael Lorusso, former deputy director of the D.C. Office of Property Management with a plasma-screen television, airplane fare and $25,000, among other inducements.

In return, Lorusso, who has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing, steered contracts to Villegas’ company, International Builders Inc.

“I shouldn’t have given him anything,” Villegas told Judge Urbina yesterday.

International Builders was barred from competing for government contracts after Villegas’ guilty plea.

Villegas will be eligible to compete again for D.C. contracts in March 2008, but his attorney, Danny Onorato, said his client has relocated to Florida.

Mr. Onorato, said Villegas was ostracized in the tight-knit local construction industry because word of his guilty plea “spread like wildfire.”

In seeking a sentence of probation, Mr. Onorato also said Villegas kept prosecutors from devoting “exorbitant” resources for a criminal trial and helped secure convictions for Jemal and other Douglas Development executives.

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