Michael Goodman for ENR A federal indictment says Wolff intentionally conspired to bill the U.S. Agency for International Development "at knowingly inflated rates" for contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Derish Wolff, former CEO of Louis Berger Group, is scheduled to be arraigned on Nov. 9 on federal charges that he led a plan to intentionally inflate overhead charges on hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts over nearly 20 years. A tentative trial date is likely to be set at that appearance.An indictment unsealed on Oct. 20 in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., says Wolff intentionally conspired to
Photo for ENR by Janice Tuchman CH2M Hills McKelvy, Kiewits Grewcock and Parsons Corp.s Harrington talked about strategies for training thousands of employees on rules of ethics as firms face increased scrutiny. Courtesy of Lane Construction Reaching out Lane uses colorful posters to encourage employees to make the call. Compliance officers searching for construction-specific advice should not feel alone. Speakers who presented best practices for small- and mid-size firms at the Construction Industry Ethics and Compliance Initiative forum, held in Denver on Oct. 10-11, all shared the same experience: They started their careers in operations or legal work with no
Related Links: Tibor Varganyi Plea A co-defendant in a negligent homicide case stemming from a 2008 tower crane collapse that killed two New York City construction workers quietly changed his plea to guilty earlier this month and has promised to help prosecutors convict his former boss, James F. Lomma, who had owned the crane, court transcripts show. The trial had been set to start next month.Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Thomas Farber granted a request by defendant Tibor Varganyi, 65, former head mechanic at Lomma’s firm, New York Crane, to change his plea in a closed courtroom, but the judge refused
Michael Goodman for ENR Wolff directed other Berger officials to devise fraudulent billing scheme, indictment charges. Related Links: Aug. 10, 2010, ENR story: "Probe Leads to Wolff's Likely Exit From Berger" Text of the indictment (PDF) The former CEO of Louis Berger Group, Derish Wolff, has been charged with leading a plan to intentionally inflate overhead charges on hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts over a period of nearly 20 years, federal officials said.According to an indictment returned by a grand jury in federal district court in Newark, N.J. , on Oct. 19 and unsealed on Oct. 20,
Related Links: Airing the Engineering Pros and Cons of TransCanada's Keystone XL Pipeline Editorial: Build the Keystone XL Pipeline, a Necessary Evil New York Times Story on Pipeline Contract Conflict Issues Even if it met the minimum standard for ethical conduct, the State Dept.'s environmental consultant for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project, Cardno Entrix, should have refrained from taking the job in order to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest, says an expert on engineering ethics and environmental work.“It's got to be above suspicion of doing something sneaky,” says Aarne Vesilind, former professor of engineering at Bucknell
Two U.S. Corps of Engineers officials and two other men were arrested on Oct. 4 and charged with conspiracy, bribery, kickbacks and money laundering on two Corps contracts, the Justice Dept. says. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald C. Machen Jr. said, “This indictment alleges one of the most brazen corruption schemes in the history of federal contracting.”The case involves an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a $1-billion-plus maximum value and a planned contract with a $780-million cap.Neither was competitively bid.The indictment, returned by a grand jury on Sept. 16 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and unsealed on
Related Links: Weighing the Merits of Lomma's Case Criminal prosecution of the owner of a tower crane whose collapse led to the deaths of two New York City construction workers in a 2008 accident will proceed next month. On Sept. 19, a state Supreme Court judge rejected a motion to dismiss negligent homicide charges against James F. Lomma, his former head mechanic and two firms the owner controlled.Paul Schechtman, attorney for Lomma, says he has made “no final decision” on whether to request a judge or jury trial, but sources close to the case say a jury trial is more
Related Links: Dept. of Justice press release Two Army Corps of Engineers contracting officials and two other men were arrested and charged with conspiracy, bribery, kickbacks and money laundering on two Corps contracts.The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Ronald C. Machen, Jr., said, “This indictment alleges one of the most brazen corruption schemes in the history of federal contracting.”Two Corps contracts are at issue in the case: An indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract with a maximum value of more than $1 billion and a planned contract that was to have a maximum value of $780 million. Neither was competitively
Photo by Tudor Van Hampton for ENR Trial of crane owner Lomma is set to begin in Manhattan on Nov. 7. AP Wideworld Crane accident killed two union workers in Manhattan in 2008; the rigger of a collapsed crane on another city site was acquitted of criminal charges. Related Links: NYC Contractors Face Manslaughter Charges in Safety Cases Crane-Failure Case Heading To Court Rapetti Speaks: They Made Me Out To Be a Murderer Criminal prosecution of the owner of a collapsed tower crane that killed two New York City construction workers in a 2008 accident will proceed next month, according
A woman who falsified asbestos abatement worker certifications for thousands of undocumented workers in New England between 2001 and 2007 was sentenced Sept. 13 in U.S. District Court in Boston to more than seven years in prison.Judge Nathaniel Gorton also ordered Albania Deleon, 41, to pay $1.2 million in back taxes and $369,015 in restitution to AIM Mutual Insurance Co., Burlington, Mass. She owned and operated what had been New England's largest certified asbestos abatement school, Environmental Compliance Training in Methuen, Mass., which issued at least 2,500 certifications to people who had not taken required training courses. DELEONAccording to published