Williams Brothers Construction, Inc., of Peoria Heights, Ill., has agreed to pay $1 million to resolve allegations that it violated the federal False Claims Act by misrepresenting its use of a small disadvantaged business to obtain a federally funded construction grant used on the $65-million new terminal building at Peoria International Airport, completed in 2011.
A $1.4-million Federal Aviation Administration grant won by the airport authority required the use of disadvantaged business enterprises for part of the construction of the new 125,000-sq-ft terminal. Federal prosecutors contended that Williams Brothers knowingly made false representations regarding its plans to use a disadvantaged small firm on the project and then falsified documents to make it appear that an eligible business performed window, glazing and curtain wall work. The government alleged that the contractor used that business only as a pass-through and instead utilized an ineligible company to perform the glazing work. The complaint did not identify the small firm or the company that did the work.