The former head of a Schuylkill County company will serve seven years in prison and pay $27,600 in fines for his role in what prosecutors call a "massive conspiracy" to defraud the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program.

Joseph W. Nagle, 53, of Deerfield Beach, Florida, who was president of Schuylkill Products, was sentenced Monday in federal court, Harrisburg. Senior U.S. District Court Judge Sylvia H. Rambo told Nagle to report to prison no later than Sept. 29.According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the scheme stretched over 15 years and involved over $136 million in government contracts in Pennsylvania alone. It is the largest reported Disadvantaged Business Enterprise fraud in the nation's history.Nagle in April was found guilty of 26 charges in the indictment, including conspiracy to defraud USDOT, commit wire and mail fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and 11 counts of money laundering after a four-week jury trial, Peter J. Smith, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, said in a news release.Dennis F. Campbell of Orwigsburg, Schuylkill Product's former vice president in charge of sales and marketing, was sentenced to 24 months in prison, must pay $119 million in restitution and serve two years of supervised release.Ernest G. Fink, also of Orwigsburg, was the company's former vice president, chief operating officer and part owner. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 14.Timothy G. Hubler, of Ashland, Pennsylvania, former vice president in charge of field operations for CDS Engineers, a Schuylkill Products subsidiary, was sentenced to 33 months' imprisonment, must pay $119 million in restitution and serve two years of supervised release.Nagle and his co-conspirators executed the scheme by using a small Connecticut highway construction firm known as Marikina Construction Corporation as a front company to obtain the lucrative government contracts.Marikina was owned by Romeo P. Cruz of West Haven, Connecticut, a naturalized American citizen born in the Philippines.Cruz was sentenced to 33 months' imprisonment, must pay $119 million in restitution and serve two years' supervised release."The audacious, long-term scheme perpetrated by Mr. Nagle and his cohorts stole money from taxpayers and opportunity from legitimate small-business owners," said FBI Special Agent in Charge Edward J. Hanko. "This case highlights the FBI's commitment to fighting DBE fraud and seeing those responsible brought to justice."Nagle was convicted of participating in the scheme, which ran from 1993 to 2008, in which he and other executives at Schuylkill Products diverted over 300 state Department of Transportation and SEPTA construction contracts worth $136 million to the company.The company was based in Cressona, and made concrete bridge beams used on highway construction projects in Pennsylvania and surrounding states.