HARRISBURG - The United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Ernest G. Fink Jr., 71, of Orwigsburg, and Joseph W. Nagle, 55, of Deerfield Beach, Florida, the former owners of Schuylkill Products Inc., had their sentences affirmed by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday.

Nagle was sentenced to 84 months' imprisonment on Nov. 30, 2015, and Fink 41 months' imprisonment on Feb. 24, 2016, for their roles in a massive conspiracy to defraud the Disadvantage Enterprise (DBE) program, Bruce D. Brandler, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced.According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, this scheme, which lasted for over 15 years and involved more than $136 million in government contracts in Pennsylvania alone, is the largest reported Disadvantaged Business Enterprise fraud in the nation's history.In April 2012, after a four-week jury trial, a jury convicted Nagle on 26 charges relating to the scheme, including conspiracy to defraud USDOT, mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Fink previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the USDOT in August 2010.In June 2014, Nagle was sentenced to 84 months' imprisonment and Fink was sentenced to 51 months' imprisonment, but those sentences were vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in September 2015 due to an incorrect calculation of the loss amount under the Sentencing Guidelines.Upon remand to the district court for resentencing, United States District Court Judge Sylvia H. Rambo recalculated the loss amount, and sentenced Nagle to the same sentence and reduced Fink's sentence to 41 months' imprisonment.Both men appealed the new sentences, and the Appellate Court affirmed those sentences Wednesday in a 10-page opinion.The Appellate Court ruled that Judge Rambo correctly measured the loss by determining the profits the defendants received as a result of the fraud and diverted from legitimate DBEs.The Appellate Court also rejected Fink's claim that his sentence was substantively unreasonable based on his age and the nonviolent nature of the offense, stating that, "a 41-month sentence for a 70-year-old first-time offender who, for at least 15 years presided over the largest reported DBE fraud in the history of the U.S. Department of Transportation is not unreasonable."In 2014, three other former executives associated with SPI were sentenced for their roles in the scheme.Romeo P. Cruz, of Westhaven, Connecticut, the former owner of Marikina Construction Corp., which operated as a front for SPI, was sentenced to 33 months' imprisonment; Timothy G. Hubler, of Ashland; SPI's former vice president in charge of field operations, was sentenced to 33 months' imprisonment; and Dennis F. Campbell, of Orwigsburg, SPI's former vice president in charge of sales and marketing, was sentenced to 24 months' imprisonment.