An Ontario Court of Appeals earlier this month more than tripled the criminal negligence fine against Toronto-based contractor Metron Construction in connection with the falling deaths of four employees on Christmas Eve 2009.The court raised the fine from $200,000 to $750,000 (Canadian), resulting in the largest such fine imposed for criminal negligence on a Canadian corporation.“It is a recent development that there would be court acceptance of penalties that may bankrupt companies,” says Jeremy Warning, a partner in the Toronto office of Montreal-based Heenan Blaikie LLP, a law firm. “It represents a touchstone case…and the penalty imposed by the Court
Photo by Jeffrey Cox/ENR Diamond Indemnity provided a surety bond to a subcontractor on a renovation and expansion project in 2012 at the New-York Historical Society. Former business partners of Melde Rutledge, the elusive source of surety bonds linked with his partners to controversial practices, claim that their association with him ended in the summer of 2012. At that time, they claim, Rutledge allegedly engaged in fraudulent bonding activity and forged the signature on bond documents of Diamond Indemnity Trust principal Darius X. Johnson.Rutledge, believed to be a resident of West Palm Peach, Fla., and his attorney could not be
Related Links: Source of Forged Surety Bonds Remains Mysterious A Bold Individual Surety Claims His Coal-Backed Bonds are Rock Solid Contractors John Melching Jr. and Dallas Collins are based in Pennsylvania and Texas, respectively, and have never met, but they have something in common: They claim they have been cheated in the past year by a business transaction that involved Larry Polec, a Chicago-based surety-bond broker.Polec is easy to spot. He is a former Michigan State basketball player who stands 6 ft, 8 in. Less easy to spot, however, are his roles in and links to an informal network of
An informal, multi-state network of companies and brokers appears to be involved in fraudulently produced Chubb surety bonds discovered earlier this year and other controversial surety practices, according to interviews with small contractors that have lost premiums paid for the bonds.
The costs of arguments and feuds on construction projects is significant, a recent study shows.According to research published late last year by the Center for Construction Research and Training, 41 incidents of conflict on construction projects each cost, on average, about $11,000 and 161 hours of work time.Those 41 incidents were part of a total of 86 conflicts that were analyzed. The 41 had enough details that the costs involved could be assessed.The results of the research come from interviews with 74 construction superintendents, project managers, foremen, supervisors, journeymen and fifth-year apprentices across Michigan’s lower peninsula.“The most interesting, to me,
The federal government announced its largest construction-related False Claims Act settlement of 2013 earlier this month involving alleged disadvantaged business enterprise fraud by a collection of Ohio-based engineering-related companies.The U.S. Dept. of Justice says it has reached a settlement with Dayton-based TesTech Inc., TesTech owner Sherif Aziz, Dayton companies CESO Testing Technology Inc., CESO International LLC, and CESO Inc., and their owners, David and Shery Oakes. They have agreed to pay $2.88 million to resolve the fraud allegations, DOJ says.The allegations were brought with the assistance of a whistleblower, former employee Ryan Parker, who will receive $562,370 of the settlement
The Dept. of Justice charged a former Alberici Constructors Inc. vice president and another man over an alleged kickback scheme that prosecutors say cost the company $4.8 million.A federal grand jury in St. Louis, where Alberici is based, indicted former vice president, Clone Jefferson Oliver, and Georgia businessman Kenneth Simmons June 13.Oliver (aka Jeff Oliver or J.J. Clone) and Simmons are also defendants in a civil lawsuit filed by Alberici in April 2011 on similar claims of a fraudulent kickback scheme. The civil lawsuit has yet to be resolved.The criminal charges are the result of investigations by the Federal Bureau
Photo courtesy of LAUSD Cahuenga Elementary School in Los Angeles Related Links: A Bold Individual Surety Claims His Coal-Backed Bonds are Rock Solid California state legislators, lobbyists, and sureties are butting heads over state senate bill 616, which proposes an entirely new approach to contract surety. If it passes, small businesses and microbusinesses will have an alternative to the traditional payment bond for certain projects within the Los Angeles Unified School District.The proposed legislation would allow the district to waive the payment bond requirement for public works contracts with small businesses or microbusinesses, as defined by the California government code,
Related Links: Senior Moments: Are Older Workers at Greater Risk of Injury? Fred Dryden operates an excavator for the heavy division of Barletta Cos.' reconstruction of the 97-year-old Larz Anderson Bridge near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. At 60, there is a good chance he's older than some of Boston's infrastructure. As an operating engineer, he has managed to avoid many of the physical hazards to which other construction crafts are prone and plans to stay on the job until age 65."I like my work because I'm always doing something different," he says with a smile. "I've got wheels, so
