Man Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison for Bribing MTA Official

A New York insurance consultant convicted of bribing a former Metropolitan Transportation Authority manager to receive work on the Metro Rail subway project was sentenced Monday to 18 months in federal prison.

John D. McAllister, 49, was found guilty in December of paying $115,000 in bribes to Abdoul Sesay, a former risk manager for MTA and its predecessor agency.

In imposing the sentence, U.S. District Judge George H. King said he had “no problem finding that the payments to Sesay were made with a corrupt purpose.”

McAllister’s attorney had argued that the payments were not bribes but gratuities paid to Sesay after McAllister was hired as an insurance consultant in May 1992. In all, McAllister received $425,000 in consulting work from MTA and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission. The conviction on 24 counts of making illegal payments is being appealed. A hearing is set May 5 to determine if McAllister has to report on June 16 to begin serving his time at a federal prison near New York.

Sesay pleaded guilty earlier to accepting cash, checks, credit card and other payments and cooperated with the government in its investigation. He was sentenced in February to 14 months at a federal prison camp.