Court records: Ex-bridge inspector to plead guilty to accepting bribes

YOUNGSTOWN -- Former bridge inspector Steven J. Koulianos of Boardman will plead guilty in federal court to accepting bribes from painting contractors, records show.
A one-count information filed in Cleveland federal court charges Koulianos with taking roughly $20,000 in cash from Argo Contracting and its representatives who wanted to improperly influence him. The time frame is November 1999 through June 2000.
Koulianos, 41, of Buchanan Drive, had been a bridge inspector with KTA Tator, a private company hired by the Ohio Department of Transportation to inspect work performed by bridge painting contractors on federally funded projects in Ohio, the government said.
Court records show Koulianos will plead guilty March 15. The charge was filed Feb. 24.
The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Christopher A. Boyko.
In January 2004, businessman George Ginnis of Campbell was sentenced to three years' probation for a bribery conspiracy that involved ODOT bridge inspectors.
At the time of Ginnis' indictment in August 2003, he and Larry Frangos of Lowellville were painting contractors, co-owners of Argo Contracting in Austintown, the government said. Frangos pleaded guilty in October 2003 to bribing an ODOT inspector and received one year's probation.
Koulianos' case is being prosecuted by Richard H. Blake, an assistant U.S. attorney. It was investigated by the FBI and U.S. Department of Transportation office of the inspector general.