SALEM — Andrew Bisignani, the former town manager of Saugus and Nahant, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for violating his probation.
During a probation violation hearing in Salem Superior Court, a judge gave Bisignani two-and-a-half years with 18 months to be served. He will then face a two year probationary period, said Essex District Attorney Spokesperson Carrie Kimball-Monahan.
Several news outlets reported Bisignani violated his probation more than 200 times by taking trips to the North Shore Mall and various restaurants.
Nearly a year ago, Salem Superior Court Judge Timothy Feeley sentenced Bisignani to two years of probation, including six months of home confinement, to begin after the federal home confinement sentence he was currently serving.
He pleaded guilty to charges including procurement fraud, destroying public records and municipal bid rigging in 2016.
While under house arrest, Bisignani was ordered to only leave his home for work, community service, medical and court appointments and religious services. He was also ordered to pay a $60,000 fine, or $5,000 for each of the 12 charges.
The Nahant resident admitted to four counts of filing false tax returns and failing to report more than $375,000 of his income on his federal tax returns over four years.
Bisignani confessed that from 2010 to 2013, he collected rental income from three properties in Revere.
During the same years, Bisignani collected interest income by making multiple short-term loans secured by Massachusetts real estate and underreported his total rental real estate income when submitting his tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service.
Bisignani admitted to improperly funneling public contracts to favored contractors while serving as Nahant town administrator and as Saugus town manager, which violated procurement laws pertaining to the expenditure of municipal funds. Such laws dictate the process by which public funds may be spent, and how vendors who will provide services to the town are selected, prosecutors said.
He was indicted on Dec. 30, 2014, after a two-year investigation by the Essex County District Attorney’s office, which began after improper spending was discovered by forensic auditors, who examined the town of Saugus finances after Bisignani left his position as town manager in January 2012.
Bisignani admitted to attempting to conceal his scheme by altering and destroying documents that an Essex County Grand Jury had subpoenaed from the town of Nahant. Prosecutors said that Bisignani met with one of the Nahant selectmen during the grand jury investigation to discuss his continued employment as town administrator. During the meeting, Bisignani secretly recorded the conversation without the selectman’s knowledge.
Bisignani served as town manager of Saugus from Jan. 1, 2009, to Jan. 12, 2012, and as town administrator of Nahant from Feb. 1, 2012, to June 30, 2014.