An owner of an Essex County-based school bus company was sentenced to five years in state prison for hiring unqualified drivers and failing to perform drug tests and background checks, which lead to an intoxicated driver crashing a company bus with children on board, officials said.
Ahmed Mahgoub, 65, of East Hanover, is the co-owner of F&A Transportation Inc. He pleaded guilty to the charges in March of 2024 in accordance with the terms of a plea agreement.
Along with the five years in state prison, Mahgoub and his company must to pay a combined $500,000 in corruption profiteering penalties, according to a release from Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin. Mahgoub and F&A Transportation are banned from doing business with the State of New Jersey for a decade.
His wife, Faiza Ibrahim, 50, is also a co-owner of F&A Transportation Inc. She entered a pretrial intervention program on a charge of third-degree tampering with public records or information, which includes a 10-year ban from doing business with the state and a $75,000 corruption profiteering penalty.
The East Orange-based transportation company admitted to hiring drivers before completion of criminal background checks and in some instances, without any criminal background check at all, said the Office of the State Attorney General.
An F&A Transportation bus is parked in an East Orange lot on Sept. 23, 2020.
Charges stemmed from safety violations
F&A was among the private school companies highlighted in a USA TODAY Network New Jersey investigation in 2020 that showed how some school bus companies received dozens of violations from Motor Vehicle Commission investigators and just a few thousand dollars in penalties while continuing to secure contracts with school districts around the state. Mahgoub and Ibrahim were also linked to other companies, including Smart Union Inc., a school bus company incorporated in 2013 that has public school contracts in Essex County.In 2019, a driver hired by F&A overdosed on heroin while driving a dozen special needs students aboard the bus. Before hitting a tree and coming to a stop, the bus crossed four lanes of traffic at an intersection in Newark. The driver did not have the legally required qualifications to drive a school bus.Days after the investigation, the Attorney General’s Office announced charges against F&A, and a year later it brought charges against Mahgoub and Ibrahim.
F&A’s criminal conduct was linked to $5.3 million in contracts from 2016 through 2020 in school districts in Essex, Passaic, Morris and Union counties.
Staff writer Colleen Wilson contributed to this article.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Essex County bus owner sentenced to 5 years over hiring practices