SC executive sent to prison for secret NKY kickback scheme

What started as a secret plan to ensure his company received the bid for a multimillion-dollar steel mill expansion project in Northern Kentucky has ended in prison for a South Carolina business executive.

Tony Berenyi, the founder of the Charleston-based Berenyi Inc. – an architecture, engineering and construction firm – was sentenced in federal court in Covington on Friday to 30 months in prison.

Berenyi was found guilty in July of 25 counts related to what prosecutors say was a scheme to pay kickbacks to a Nucor Steel Gallatin engineer who steered the contract for a $650 million mill expansion project in Gallatin County to Berenyi and his firm.

It all began in late 2017 when Berenyi proposed paying a “finder’s fee” to Jaymin Vinson, of Delaware, Ohio, during a dinner meeting at Belterra Casino Hotel, prosecutors said in court filings.

The pair met while working on a separate project in 2008 and they formed a yearslong professional and personal relationship.

In exchange for the kickback, prosecutors say, Vinson acted as Berenyi’s inside man within Nucor advocating on behalf of Berenyi’s firm.

Berenyi was ultimately awarded a $14.9 million construction management contract for the mill expansion project – the largest Berenyi’s firm had ever worked on.

The contract was overvalued to include the cost of the kickbacks paid to Vinson by Berenyi, prosecutors say, a fact kept hidden from Nucor.

“He harmed society by corrupting an employee of a public company and contributing to a culture of fraud and deceit, instead of conducting his business affairs honorably and truthfully,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.

Berenyi and Vinson intended to defraud Nucor out of more than $2.3 million, or roughly 15% of Berenyi’s expected gross billings from the project.

Prosecutors say it was Berenyi, who in November 2019, exposed a portion of the scheme to Nucor, which subsequently fired Vinson and terminated its relationship with Berenyi’s firm.

Berenyi had invoiced about $7.4 million under the contract before the scheme fell apart, prosecutors said. Of the more than $750,000 fraudulently obtained from Nucor, Berenyi kept close to $400,000 for himself, paying the rest to Vinson in kickbacks.

In total, Vinson was paid more than $452,000. He pleaded guilty in July 2022 to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and will be sentenced on March 14, court records show.

Even after Berenyi disclosed the scheme to Nucor, he continued to lie to federal authorities about his involvement and denied culpability, according to prosecutors.

Berenyi claimed it was Vinson who initially requested the payments and he only brought evidence forward against his accomplice once he no longer felt “threatened.”

Throughout his six-day trial, Berenyi continued to maintain that Vinson had extorted him – an argument the jury rejected.

“His behavior is just shrouded in secrets and lies,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney James Chapman.

One of Berenyi’s attorneys, Tim Schneider, said the