The owner of five restaurants and a golf course in Ludlow was arrested in New York on Thursday after being indicted on charges alleging he bribed a project manager at a Fortune 500 company with a $33,000 payment in order to win a $3.5 million construction contract, according to federal prosecutors.
From February 2021 to September 2023, 56-year-old Troy Caruso allegedly paid “kickbacks to an employee of a global and publicly traded commercial real estate services company … in exchange for assistance and preferential treatment” for a New York City construction company he owns, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.
A powerful property owner in Ludlow, Caruso, who has addresses in Vermont and New York, owns the Fox Run Golf Club as well as restaurants severely damaged by July’s flooding, including Mr. Darcy’s and Sam’s Steakhouse. Local news outlets have celebrated Caruso’s presence in town, and following July’s floods, he became a frequent source for outlets reporting on damages to businesses.
The Ludlow Selectboard signed off on a flood buyout for Sam’s Steakhouse, but denied a similar request for Mr. Darcy’s, according to Nov. 6 meeting minutes.
Caruso and a colleague at the construction company, which was not named in the release, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud, both of which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. An indictment charging them was unsealed on Thursday.
Prosecutors further alleged that Caruso attempted to receive additional contracts through bribery.
“In the construction world, fair bidding is crucial to the success or downfall of a business, and kickback schemes like the one we allege in this case can undermine that process,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. “Those attempting to corrupt the bidding process by gaining an unfair advantage over their law-abiding counterparts will face criminal prosecution.”
Attempts to reach Caruso and his attorney on Thursday afternoon were not successful. His attorney, Marc Agnifilo, did not respond to a request for comment, and nobody answered the phone at numbers listed for Caruso.
Reached by phone, Brett Sanderson, chair of the Ludlow selectboard, said he had not heard about Caruso’s indictment.
“I figured something had to be going on. I hadn’t seen him around town in a while,” Sanderson said. “It seemed funny that he came into town and just started buying stuff up. That’s brought a lot of concern to a lot of people.”
