A Middle River businessman received a reduced sentence Friday after a judge gave him credit for helping to take down one of Maryland?s most powerful politicians.
Michael Forti, 59, was sentenced to six months in prison and six months of home detention for his role in a fraud scheme involving Maryland State Sen. Thomas Bromwell. Forti and his wife, Geraldine, 58, told the FBI of payoffs made to Bromwell.
“They made one of the biggest racketeering cases this district has seen — at a significant cost to themselves,” said defense attorney Andrew White.
The Fortis were the first to tell federal investigators of a no-show job given to Bromwell?s wife, Mary Patricia, in order to keep contracts coming to W. David Stoffregen?s company, Poole and Kent.
The information they provided to the investigators cost them their jobs and friends, White said.
U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz said the couple deserved “much lighter sentences” than they otherwise would have received because of their cooperation. He ordered Geraldine Forti to two months of probation and the couple to pay $200,000 in restitution.
Geraldine Forti asked for mercy by calling attention to her teenage children.
“It shouldn?t be that their mother embarrasses them,” she said.
Her husband also apologized.
“I love my wife and I?m sorry I got her into this,” he said.
Michael Forti was the executive vice president and CEO of Forti, Poole and Kent, a construction company that often served as a subcontractor to Poole and Kent.
Bromwell, 58, a Baltimore County Democrat, was sentenced to seven years in prison last month after admitting to taking bribes from that company.
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Stoffregen provided benefits to Bromwell in exchange for the senator?s influence. Stoffregen told Bromwell in 2000 that he would pay him about $80,000 annually to remain in his Senate office rather than leave to work in the private sector, prosecutors said.
Between 2001 and 2003, Stoffregen paid Bromwell $192,923 disguised as salary payments to the senator?s wife, Mary Patricia, for a no-show job.
Motz sentenced Mary Patricia Bromwell, 44, to one year and one day in prison last month. Stoffregren received 6 1/2 years.
