The prime contractor on a Chicago bridge project shuttled its employees to woman-owned steel and concrete subcontractors hired to comply with government hiring goal programs, and later rehired the same workers in 2006 and 2007, federal prosecutors charge.

As part of the charges made last month against Elizabeth Perino, 57, the owner of two companies accused of serving as an illegal “pass-through” to help prime contractors fulfill subcontracting requirements for woman-owned businesses (WBEs) and disadvantaged businesses (DBEs) on the North Avenue Bridge project, the U.S. attorney in Chicago amassed different types of evidence of fraud. An essential part of the alleged fraud is that Perino’s companies performed no useful commercial function.

The prime contractor was not identified in the federal charges or accused of any crime, but media reports identified the company as McHugh Construction Co. The firm allegedly sent some employees during the project to work for Perino’s companies, Perdel Contracting Corp., which specializes in concrete and carpentry, and Accurate Steel Installers Inc. (ASI). Both are based in Lockport, Ill., and both were certified as a WBE or a DBE by various government entities.

Some of the fraud occurred, say federal prosecutors, when the prime contractor actually performed the work that was to have been performed by Perino’s two companies.

McHugh had also hired Perdel for tens of millions of dollars worth of subcontracts on the Chicago Transit Authority’s  Red and Brown lines and other projects.