Government Procurement Fraud
This archive displays posts tagged as relevant to fraud in government contracting and procurement. You may also be interested in the following pages:
July 16, 2018
An former airport contractor has plead guilty to paying over $5M in bribes and kickbacks to a field inspector at the Wayne Country Airport Authority in Wayne County, Michigan. According to the government’s allegations, William Pritula, paid the bribes in kickbacks in exchange for favorable treatment for his company, Pritula and Sons, in contracts for pavement repair and fire hydrant installation at Detroit’s airport. The inspector who received the bribes is a co-defendant in the action. USAO Eastern District of MichiganJuly 12, 2018
Navnoor Kang, the former head of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the third-largest pension in the country, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud. Kang accepted bribes in return for steering over $2 billion worth of investments to particular firms, generating massive commissions for those who bribed him. The USAO of SDNY coordinated with the SEC, which brought its own civil enforcement action against Kang. USAO SDNYJuly 6, 2018
North American Power Group Limited, along with its owner Michael Ruffatto, have agreed to pay $14.4 million as a result of allegations that they submitted false claims under an agreement with the DOE to carry out data collection and carbon sequestration projects at a Wyoming energy site. Rather than seek reimbursement for work done, as they claimed, the defendants had submitted invoices reflecting personal expenses like travel, jewelry, and car payments. Ruffatto was also sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in the scheme. DOJ; USAO WDPAJuly 6, 2018
Kansas man Gary Duff was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defrauding the State Department in connection with $1.47 million in contracts. Duff admitted in his plea that he concealed conflicts of interest underlying his successful bids for the contracts. His co-conspirator was previously sentenced to 15 months imprisonment for steering the contracts to Duff. DOJJune 27, 2018
John J. Palie Jr. and his son John J. Palie III both pled guilty to fraud charges related to titanium sold to a Connecticut defense contractor. The two admitted to misrepresenting the source and quality of the titanium they sold to a company that produces aircraft engines including for U.S. Air Force fighter jets. The victim company faced $1,328,000 in losses for the fraudulent misrepresentation. USAO DCTJune 26, 2018
Alter Stesel, also known by various alias, and his company A1 4 Electronics Inc. were placed in debarment status by the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) for providing counterfeit goods and failing to perform on contracts with DHS. Stesel then continually created new companies to falsely certify that to the government that he was not under debarment status and received approximately 45 contracts with his two new companies worth over $300,000 while on debarment. Stesel pleaded guilty to six counts of wire fraud. USAO EDVAThe Big Business of Detaining Families Creates a Serious Fraud Risk
Posted 06/21/18
By Poppy Alexander
The massive public outcry about family separations at the border has spotlighted an area of federal spending that often gets ignored-the massive business that is immigration detention for children and families. The Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of HHS, spent approximately $3.4 billion on private companies to shelter and detain these kids in just the last four years. Yet little data...