U.S. Contractor Convicted of Massive Fraud On U.S. Taxpayers

[From article]
A second Boggs Paving executive pleaded guilty Tuesday morning in connection with charges that the company received more than $87 million in road projects by misrepresenting the role a minority-owned contractor played in the work.
Prosecutors say a third high-ranking company official will plead guilty on Wednesday.
Kevin Hicks, the chief financial officer for the Monroe-based company, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Department of Transportation and conspiracy to launder money. He will be sentenced at a later date.
Hicks, 43, of Monroe, faces up to 25 years in prison and a $750,000 fine.
[. . .]
According to the indictment, Boggs received 37 federal construction contracts worth $87.6 million dating back to 2004. The company would have gotten none of the jobs without claiming that minority subcontractors known as DBEs (short for “disadvantaged business enterprise”) would receive a required percentage of the work.
According to the investigators, Boggs Paving misled the government into thinking it met the requirement with the help of Styx Cuthbertson Trucking, a certified DBE.
[. . .]
Fraud involving minority contracts appears to be a growing problem, says David Wonnenberg of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General.
In fiscal years 2009 and 2010, DBE fraud or abuse accounted for 25 percent of the Inspector General’s caseload. By April 2013, he said, that had risen to 29 percent.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/07/22/5059471/paving-company-executive-pleads.html#.U86jq90--yN

Paving company executive pleads guilty in massive fraud case
By Michael Gordon and Elizabeth DePompei
Posted: Tuesday, Jul. 22, 2014