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
Three former New York City project officials indicted in connection with a fatal 2007 fire at a vacant Ground Zero high-rise being cleaned of asbestos and demolished will stand trial on manslaughter and other charges on Jan. 18. A New York state supreme court judge rejected on Oct. 22 motions to dismiss charges. The fire killed two firefighters. Click here to read ruling by Judge Rena K. Uviller. Photo: AP August 2007 fire at former World Trade Center site killed two firefighters. Related Links: Ground Zero Blaze Raises New Questions on Demolition Job Now facing trial related to the Deutsche
A former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project engineer allegedly accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks in connection with the award of millions of dollars of reconstruction contracts in Iraq, according to a U.S. Justice Dept. complaint. John Alfy Salama Markus of Nazareth, Pa., was charged on Oct. 13 for his alleged role in providing confidential bidding information to Iraqi Consultants & Construction Bureau. John Markus was the Corps contracting officer on seven contracts won by the firm.
Jennifer Smith’s sexual harassment and gender discrimination case against Eugene/Springfield Public Utility District Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee of Oregon is headed for a resolution. Following an investigation by the state’s Bureau of Labor and Industries, the apprentice linewoman’s case has been sent to the Oregon State Apprenticeship and Training Council for a final decision, expected sometime in October. Smith filed complaints in December 2009 with BOLI asking it to overturn a local JATC ruling that she was not ready to graduate as a journey-level linewoman. She claimed gender discrimination and sexual harassment during her apprenticeship resulted in her failure to