Chad Van Zee, president of a ready-mix concrete company in Rock Valley, Iowa, has pleaded guilty to fixing prices with another concrete supplier from northwestern Iowa between 2006 and 2009. The prosecutor for the U.S. Dept. of Justice filed a single-count felony charge against Van Zee on Nov. 30 in U.S. District Court in Sioux City, Iowa. The charge says Van Zee and Steven Keith Vandebrake, a former executive of a ready-mix company in Orange City, Iowa, violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by agreeing on annual price increases for ready-mix concrete and selling the product at collusive and non-competitive prices.
A former executive with a United Kingdom subsidiary of the then-Kellogg, Brown & Root Inc. has pleaded guilty to a charge that he conspired to bribe Nigerian government officials to win contracts for a $6-billion project in that country, the U.S. Dept. of Justice said. Related Links: Halliburton Terminates Relations with Former CEO A. Jack Stanley Ex-KBR CEO Guilty of Bribery Nigeria charges former US VP Cheney over bribery KBR Statement Wojciech J. Chodan, a former commercial vice president and consultant to the KBR subsidiary, entered a guilty plea on Dec. 6 in federal district court in Houston on one
Schiavone Construction Co. agreed on Nov. 29 to a $22.4-million settlement of a federal probe into its use of phony companies in place of legitimate minority and women-owned subcontractors on big New York City infrastructure jobs. The news recalled the case of Reagan-era Secretary of Labor Raymond Photo: Couretesy of Total Impact Communicaitons Alleged subcontracting fraud by contractor occurred on Manhattan’s South Ferry subway station rehab and other New York City jobs. Related Links: Justice Department Press Release Schiavone No-Prosecution Agreement Joint Statement of Facts Donovan. Before entering the public sector, he was a principal at Schiavone, one of the
Schiavone Construction Co. has agreed to pay a $22.4-million settlement of a federal investigation of Schiavone’s use of phony companies in place of legitimate minority-owned businesses on four big New York City infrastructure contracts, prosecutors said Nov. 29. Photo: NYC DEP Subcontracting on Croton water filtration plant in Bronx, N.Y. and other projects are at center of fraud settlement. Related Links: Investigators Target Big Firms In Minority Hiring Probe Feds Drop Charges Against Schiavone Manager Donovan Wins Dismissal of Sale-Related Lawsuit Donovan: Give Me Back My Reputation! The payment is a “civil settlement agreement” made with the U.S. Attorney in
Michael Forde, former executive secretary-treasurer of the carpenters’ union district council in New York City, was sentenced on Nov. 19 in U.S. district court in Manhattan to 11 years in prison and three years of supervised release for his role in a 15-year racketeering scheme. Pleading guilty in July to racketeering charges, he admitted to taking bribes from multiple contractors, helping union firms cheat union benefits funds out of millions of dollars, rigging job assignments and obstructing investigations into his conduct. Forde, 56, was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine and to compensate the union and its benefits funds an
New York City-based Skanska USA has confirmed that the government is probing subcontracting arrangements made by the company and other large contractors that may have involved phony certified minority and women-owned firms. Photo: NYC DEP Subcontracting on Croton water filtration plant in Bronx, N.Y., set for completion in 2012, is under investigation. Related Links: The Croton Water Filtration Plant Project The Fulton Street Transit Center The New York Times also reports that Schiavone Construction Co., Secaucus, N.J., is a target of the investigation. Neither firm has been charged with any crime. The investigation, according to published reports involving unnamed sources,
The Environmental Protection Agency on Nov. 9 issued a subpoena to oil-field services contractor Halliburton for failing to provide information the agency needs to complete its congressionally mandated study on hydraulic fracturing, or “hydrofracking.” Eight other hydrofracking firms that received voluntary information requests in September agreed to submit “timely and complete information” to EPA, the agency said. But Houston-based Halliburton took another tack, refusing to give EPA full data on the company’s hydraulic fracturing operations over the past five years. “Because the agency’s request was so broad, potentially requiring the company to prepare approximately 50,000 spreadsheets, we have met with
In his testimony during a July hearing in Kenner, La., about the Gulf oil spill, BP’s well team leader, Alexander John Guide, was asked about his relevant work experience. In his 10 years at BP, Guide said he had led many well-drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico. He also had regularly refreshed his knowledge of well control in training sessions. Then the attorney asked Guide if he had an engineering license. The answer was a simple no. Lost in the chain of individual decisions that led to the Deepwater Horizon blowout explosion that killed 11 workers and the uncontrolled
The Louis Berger Group’s president, Larry D. Walker, says his company will emerge better from changes made because of investigations that culminated in a $69-million settlement with the U.S. Dept. of Justice announced on Nov. 5. He maintains the company discovered the overbilling targeted by investigators before the company became aware of the federal investigation and that the company began refunding $4 million to federal agencies. New internal controls and compliance and ethics programs will prevent a recurrence, he says. The overcharging “goes back into the 1990s before the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts and was based on a methodology that
Louis Berger Group has agreed to pay $69 million to settle civil charges by the Dept. of Justice that the company systematically inflated its overhead charges in cost-plus work for the federal government from 1999 to 2007. Related Links: Dept. of Justice press conference Criminal complaint against Louis Berger Group Probe Leads to Wolff's Likely Exit from Berger The settlement was announced Nov. 5th in Newark, N.J., by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman. “Money that could have been used for more good work instead went to LBG’s bottom line,” he said. “It allowed a corrupt few to send a message about