BALTIMORE, MD—A Harford County man who ran a Baltimore County-based business has been sentenced to 20 months in federal prison for bribing the former CEO of a Maryland broadband cooperative, according to federal prosecutors.
Wayne I. Kacher, Jr., 52, was found guilty by a federal jury on May 21, 2024 of conspiracy, honest services wire fraud, and federal program bribery. U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher sentenced Kacher.
Prosecutors said Kacher, the president and owner of Bel Air Underground, Inc., a company that was principally located in Baltimore County, provided financial benefits to William Patrick Mitchell, the former president and CEO of the Maryland Broadband Cooperative, Incorporated, from at least 2014 to 2018.
Kacher gave Mitchell cash payments, an all-terrain vehicle, a John Deere Gator, and paid for renovations and improvements to Mitchell’s residence, including the construction of a pole building on his property, in exchange for work that MdBC was subcontracting to BAU, prosecutors said.
MdBC is a not-for-profit corporation that works with internet service providers to offer broadband internet service to underserved and unserved areas in Maryland. Public and private entities could join the cooperative and gain access to the broadband infrastructure that MdBC installed for a fee.
From 2014 to 2018, MdBC paid BAU over $11 million for broadband work, prosecutors said. About $7.9 million of that was for installing and improving a fiber-optic broadband connection from NASA Wallops Island to Patuxent River Naval Air Station in St. Mary’s County.
Mitchell was sentenced to one year and one day in prison on October 7, 2024.
This article was written with the assistance of AI and reviewed by a human editor.
Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels
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