Lend Lease (U.S.) Construction LMB Inc., formerly Bovis Lend Lease, and its former top New York City executive on April 24 settled charges of decade-long overbilling on some of the city's biggest public and private projects.
AP Commission convened by Quebec Premier Jean Charest will hold hearings in June, with power to subpoena witnesses, to further probe ethics violations in provincial construction contracting. Fifteen individuals, including officials and industry managers, were arrested in a related sting in April. An independent commission created last year by Quebec Premier Jean Charest to probe construction industry corruption in the province will begin calling witnesses to testify in June, using new subpoena powers. Further, on April 27, the body won a court ruling that orders Canada’s national police force to release documents from a related probe of organized crime. The
Canada's national police force raided the Montreal offices of engineer SNC-Lavalin on April 13, seeking information about missing funds allegedly used by former executives to procure work in Libya.The raid underscores troubles in the firm's overseas projects. The chief executive resigned following the departure of two other senior executives earlier. The firm also said on April 2 that the World Bank had temporarily suspended its unit in Bangladesh from bidding on a $2-billion bridge project there while a bank probe of corruption allegations continues. The allegations are noted in a "confidential" bank report, but the firm said the lender's action
Schooldesign.com Building that had been planned for lot at community college in Chula Vista, Calif. A community college in southern California hired an at-risk construction manager in 2010 to build a new multiuse building but that company based its proposed fee on a higher construction cost than its top competitor, and no one is sure exactly why.The contract was awarded to the construction manager whose price proposal was based on the higher amount, $59 million, according to a review report released last month. The runner-up based its fee proposal on an estimated construction cost of $55 million.Sometimes proposals where price
Two final court dates have been set for mid-April in the negligent homicide trial of James F. Lomma, the owner of the Kodiak tower crane whose fatal collapse killed two workers in Manhattan nearly four years ago. For more than a month, the owner of the equipment rental firm has been the focus of charges that say he was responsible for the 2008 deaths of union crane operator Donald Leo and sewer worker Ramadan Kurtaj.With the prosecution resting its case, Lomma's attorneys began calling as witnesses in late March two crane forensic engineering experts employed by Haag Engineering. The defense
Related Links: Dept. of Justice press release The former chief executive of a Pennsylvania company that made concrete bridge beams has been convicted on multiple counts of fraud and money laundering in what the U.S. Dept. of Transportation says is the largest reported Disadvantaged Business Enterprise fraud in the department’s 45-year history.The Justice Dept. said a jury in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg on April 5 found Joseph W. Nagle guilty on 26 of the 30 charges in a federal indictment. Nagle (pronounced NOGG-ull) was president, CEO and part-owner of Schuylkill Products Inc. (SPI), Cressona, Pa., and its CDS Engineering
Related Links: SNC-Lavalin Begins Investigation into Mysterious Payments of $35 Million An independent review of a mysterious $56 million in payments made by SNC-Lavalin, the big, Canada-based engineer-contractor, has concluded the company’s chief executive officer authorized or permitted another executive to make a $33.5-million payment, which constitutes a large part of the unaccounted-for amount. But the review, released on March 26, failed to determine what the money was used for or to whom it was paid.SNC-Lavalin issued the report concurrently with the announcement that CEO Pierre Duhaime had resigned.Ian Bourne, a director of SNC-Lavalin, will serve as interim CEO.Chairman Gwyn
Photo courtesy of LaFarge Lafarge Industries South Africa's Lichtenburg cement plant has a capacity of 2.4 million tonnes of cement a year. Lafarge Industries South Africa (Pty) Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of French cement maker Lafarge, will pay a $19.5-million penalty after admitting to charges of price fixing and market manipulation in southern Africa.South Africa's Competition Commission said Lafarge has owned up to its participation in a cement cartel in southern Africa and agreed to pay the penalty, which represents 6% of its 2010 business revenue in the five countries that form the Southern African Customs Union: South Africa,
Related Links: Justice Dept. press release Five Harbert construction companies, most of which reportedly are defunct, have agreed to pay $47 million to the U.S. government to settle allegations of bid-rigging on a U.S. Agency for International Development-funded sewer system project in Egypt built more than 15 years ago, the Justice Dept. said.The Justice Dept. said on March 20 that Harbert Corp., Harbert International Inc., Bill Harbert International Constructions Inc., Harbert Construction Services (U.K.) Ltd. and Bilhar International Establishment agreed to make the payment to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that they conspired to rig bids on a
Rendering courtesy of HNTB Subcontracting goal program compliance on the North Avenue Bridge, shown in rendering, are the subject of a continuing federal investigation. 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)
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