Prison for NJ school bus owner who hired criminal, unqualified drivers

🚌 NJ school bus owner gets prison
🚌 Hired dangerously unqualified drivers
🚌 Many buses failed inspection

The owner of a school bus company that hired dangerously unqualified drivers and operated unsafe buses has been sentenced to prison, state Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced.

In Superior Court in Essex County, Ahmed Mahgoub, of East Hanover, was sentenced to five years under a plea deal with state prosecutors.

Mahgoub and his company, East Orange-based F and A Transportation, pleaded guilty on March 6, 2024 to second-degree false representation for a government contract.

In connection with this case, F and A co-owner and Mahgoub's spouse, Faiza Ibrahim, also of East Hanover, has entered the pretrial intervention program on a third-degree charge of tampering with public records or information.

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Unsafe buses, drivers

F&A had $3.5 million in contracts from 2016 through 2020 with public school districts in Essex, Passaic, Morris, and Union counties.

During that time, the company knowingly hired drivers who did not hold valid commercial driver’s licenses, as well as drivers who had criminal histories, known substance abuse problems and suspended licenses.

They hired drivers before finishing criminal background checks or, in some cases, without any criminal background check at all.

In February 2019, an employee of F and A allegedly used heroin in a parking lot in East Orange before boarding a school bus to drive 12 special-needs children in Newark.

While at the wheel with students on board, the employee allegedly overdosed and crashed the school bus into the wall of a building. Police who arrived on the scene used Narcan to revive the driver, prosecutors previously said.

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The business owners also faked vehicle inspection forms to make it seem as though their buses consistently passed required pre- and post-trip company inspections.

Despite insisting that their buses consistently passed company inspections, in February and August 2019, the state Motor Vehicle Commission inspected F&A’s buses — and nearly all failed on both occasions.

“The defendant not only flouted government regulations and standards, he risked the lives of children by cutting corners,” Platkin said in a written release.

Mahgoub and his company have also been ordered to pay a combined $500,000 in corruption profiteering penalties.

They and Ibrahim are all banned from doing business with the state or its administrative or political subdivisions for a decade.

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