Politico - One of the four companies picked by the Trump administration for its Mexico border wall prototype paid more than $3 million to settle a Justice Department criminal investigation into whether it defrauded the U.S. government through its participation in a federal “mentor-protégé” program to help disadvantaged small business contractors, records show.
The firm, Caddell Construction Company Inc., a major commercial and industrial federal government construction contractor based in Montgomery, Alabama, did not admit wrongdoing in the 2012 case.
But it entered into a non-prosecution arrangement in which it agreed to pay $2 million and to provide unspecified cooperation with the federal government for two years, Justice Department filings and news releases show. It paid the rest of the money in what appears to be a related case, according to those documents and information contained in the Federal Contractor Misconduct Database of the Project on Government Oversight, an independent and nonpartisan group.
Caddell is a huge firm that has done a large volume of business with the federal government. But some government oversight experts warned that even one case out of many that involves substantial criminal fraud allegations raises additional concerns about a Trump administration project that seems destined for years of controversy, cost overruns and questions about how taxpayer money is spent.
1 comment:
But what did NOT happen was Caddell being permanently debarred from USG contracting, as it should have been. Thanks, Obama.
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