MAHONING VALLEY Frangos enters guilty plea in inspector bribery case

Vindicator files show a past hazardous-waste conviction for one defendant.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Businessman Larry Frangos of Lowellville has pleaded guilty to bribing an Ohio Department of Transportation bridge inspector.
Frangos, 57, of 4950 Kennedy Road, reached a plea agreement with the government and will be sentenced Dec. 19 in U.S. District Court, Cleveland. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Donald C. Nugent.
On Aug. 6, a one-count information was filed against Frangos, charging him with bribery involving federal programs. He is free on $50,000 unsecured bond.
In a 13-page plea agreement, Frangos admitted if the case had gone to trial, the government would have proved that he paid $2,000 to an ODOT bridge inspector in April 2001. The charge identifies the bridge inspector as Jeffrey Burton of Lakewood.
At the time of the charge, Frangos was a painting contractor, co-owner of Argo Contracting in Austintown, the government said.
His Girard lawyer, Richard L. Goodman, could not be reached.
Previous plea in '95
In January 1995, Frangos pleaded guilty in Massachusetts to illegally transporting hazardous waste there, according to Vindicator files. He received a two-year suspended sentence and was ordered to pay a $75,000 fine.
Frangos and any company he associated with were barred from performing any bridge or repair work in Massachusetts for two years.
Also Aug. 6, a federal grand jury in Cleveland handed up a two-count indictment against Frangos' partner, George Ginnis, 57, of Harmony Lane, Campbell. He, too, is accused of giving $2,000 to Burton in April 2001 when Burton was assigned to the Rocky River bridge project.
Ginnis also is accused of conspiring with others to bribe unidentified ODOT inspectors, who then allowed substandard performance.
Ginnis' trial is set for jury trial Nov. 4 in Akron federal court. He is free on $50,000 unsecured bond.
Frangos, as a condition of his plea agreement, must testify as a prosecution witness.
The case is being prosecuted by Thomas E. Getz and Richard H. Blake, assistant U.S. attorneys. It was investigated by the FBI and U.S. Department of Transportation office of the inspector general.
Payoffs identified
Ginnis' indictment identifies payoffs to an unidentified ODOT inspector in 1997, including a guitar and $500 cash; the $2,000 to Burton; and a $1,000 bribe to another unnamed ODOT inspector in summer 2002. The ODOT inspectors reportedly falsified their reports as to the quantity and quality of Argo's work.
A one-count information filed under seal against Burton in March -- while the investigation continued -- was unsealed Aug. 18 by court order. ODOT said then that he was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the case.
Burton pleaded guilty Aug. 28 to creating false reports between January and April 1998 as to the quantity or quality of the work performed with federally funded bridge painting projects administered by ODOT. He will be sentenced Dec. 2 in Akron federal court.
meade@vindy.com