A three-year-long federal investigation of alleged overbilling on reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan by engineer Louis Berger Group appears likely to force Derish M. Wolff, chairman of the firm’s holding company, from his job, according to court documents filed last week. Photo: Michael Goodman For ENR Wolff’s terms of departure from the company are controversial. The company is trying to resolve Wolff’s status as chairman of Berger Group Holdings, it said a statement released on August 16. “We anticipate that the matter of his employment to be resolved by the end of next week,” the company said. Contacted at his New
Paris-based construction giant Technip S.A. has agreed to pay $338 million to avoid prosecution and settle civil suits alleging violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in a 1990s and early 2000s bribery scheme to win $6 billion in contracts in Nigeria. Under the June 29 deal with the U.S. Justice Dept. and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Technip says it will pay the fines over a two-year period and “improve its compliance procedures,” including appointment of a monitor. The firm was part of the TSKJ engineering-procurement-construction consortium involved in building the Bonny Island liquified- natural-gas plant during that
A new bill proposed in the U.S. Congress would give the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration the power to request up to 20 years of prison time for construction company executives, project managers and safety directors for willful safety violations resulting in serious injury or death. The Protecting America’s Workers Act, which was introduced by U.S. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), has raised objections from the Associated General Contractors of America, which says the legislation “creates financial and legal disincentives to find and fix” safety problems.
The American Society of Civil Engineers will release 3,000 free copies of “Ethicana,” a new anti-corruption DVD. Funded by firms, global banks and others, it is the centerpiece of a revved-up training program for educating engineers, builders and students worldwide. It targets costly fraud, bribery and corruption practices.
Suspected of paying bribes to secure overseas contracts, three directors of the U.K. subsidiary of France’s power-equipment and rolling-stock maker Alstom S.A., Paris, have been arrested by the British Serious Fraud Office. Money laundering and other offences also are alleged. Arrests followed dawn raids on five Alstom offices and four homes across the country on March 24. Swiss police are involved in the investigation.
James Delayo, a former inspector for the New York City Dept. of Buildings, has pleaded guilty to taking cash payments in exchange for falsifying paperwork relating to crane inspections and certifying crane-operator exams. He is recommended to receive a two- to six-year prison sentence after being charged with bribe-receiving in the second degree, considered to be a Class C felony. “This is another case where responsibility and safety were trumped by greed,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. “These crimes threaten the industry that built our great city, and this fraud hurts the honest business owners and employees who
After nearly a week of extra-innings deliberation, a New York City jury finally convicted regional concrete testing giant Testwell Laboratories on Feb. 25 of racketeering stemming from allegations it filed fake test results on more than 80 buildings. Testwell Laboratories, its CEO, V. Reddy Kancharla, and Vice President Vincent Barone were found guilty of enterprise corruption, which carries a mandatory prison term of one year and could put the two executives behind bars for as many as 25 years. "Testwell’s conduct was reprehensible not only for its pattern of theft and deception, but for its utter disregard for the safety
Three months after he was arrested for allegedly defrauding former employers URS Corp. and STV Corp., and clients, of more than $3 million in allegedly fabricated expenses, George Papadopoulos, an engineer and former vice president of those companies, will be in court March 22 following a not guilty plea to federal fraud and larceny charges last month in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston. He was released on $25,000 bail. “As a construction project manager, Mr. Papadopoulos had authority and discretion to make expenditures and seek reimbursement for them,” says a statement released on his behalf. “He believes these expenses are
German prosecutor officials are investigating possible criminal falsification of construction survey data on Cologne’s roughly $550 million North-South urban rail project, scene of a building collapse last March. In parallel, diaphragm walls being used in construction of one the line’s underground stations have been found to be about 80% short of specified dowel bars. These, as yet unconnected, findings recently emerged from investigations into the March 3, 2009 collapse of the city’s historical archive building. The building was undermined when a section of railroad tunnel under construction in nearby Waidmarkt collapsed. No official cause for the tunnel failure has yet
The New York City district attorney’s criminal indictment of Manhattan-based construction management and interiors firm The Builders Group for stealing nearly $7 million from five private-sector clients now accompanies ongoing civil lawsuits by those owners. The Jan. 27 indictment against the firm, its president George Figliolia and two other executives, charges them with a kickback scheme on projects such as condo conversions and office renovations that inflated construction costs through submission of false subcontractor bills between 2006 and 2009. Names of clients were not disclosed in the indictment, but the firm previously cited work for firms such as AT&T, Tiffany’s