THE BIG CON "How Minority Contractors Get Forced Out Of Business!

Construction firm Lend Lease (US) Construction LMB, nee Bovis Lend Lease, was hit with fraud charges and ordered to pay up to $56 million by the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn Tuesday.

The firm, which worked on projects like the Bronx Criminal Courthouse in the Bronx, Grand Central Terminal, and Citi Field in Queens, was accused of “fraudulently” overbilling its clients for the past two decades. Bovis was also accused of “misrepresenting the work performed by its minority business enterprise partners” in order to win bids on public projects, the US Attorney’s Office said.

CITI FIELD.

“Through this deliberate scheme of billing clients for work not done, Bovis deceived their customers and stole taxpayer dollars,” said US Attorney for The Eastern District of New York Loretta Lynch. “They also abused a program — designed to benefit and train minority contractors — for their own profit motive,” she added.

Formerly known as Bovis Lend Lease LMB inc., the firm operated in over 40 countries throughout the world, and employed over 1,000 people in the US.

From 1999 to 2009, the firm “fraudulently” billed clients for hours that were in fact not being worked by labor foremen from Local 79 Mason Tenders’ District Council of Greater New York. Bovis would do this by frequently padding the time sheets for each labor foremen with one or two hours of unworked overtime per day, prosecutors said.

Bovis would also complete time sheets for labor foremen who were otherwise out sick or away on holiday. Lend Lease would dish out extra lump sum and stipend payments to a group of labor foremen, then bill those payments to clients. Those clients, prosecutors say, were left completely in the dark about the true and illicit nature of these charges.

Former Bovis NYC head honcho James Adabie was charged with playing a crucial role in the firm’s unscrupulous overbilling practices. While serving as the Principal in Charge of Bovis’ New York Office from 2002 to 2009, he “explicitly and fraudelently directed his subordinates to carry out the practice of adding unworked hours to labor foremen’s time sheets,” the US Attorney’s Office said in a press release.You would think that this was an uncommon occurrence but sadly things like this and worse are frequent pitfalls that minority contractors have to face.Another popular scam is getting a large contract from a firm as a subcontractor and not a prime.A firm will then be eligible for a job that requires a minority partner but when you initiate the work the prime begins to put roadblocks in your way like asking for unreasonable and costly extras while simultaneously taking its time in paying you for work completed in most cases up to 90 days! in that time if you are unable to way workers your firm gets a black eye and the prime gets rid of another minority contractor poised as competition. This scenario has been almost an industry standard and the federal Govt. routinely seems to turn a blind eye.In the 80's Lawyers for the Maryland Minority Contractors Association affirmed that the Maryland Transit Authority faoled to ensure that minority contractors in the state recieve a paltry 10% of the contracts. UMTA a Federal agency was dispensing 80% of the money and strict guidelines were to be followed. After the suit the evidence bore out that white businessmen were not content with 90% of the money thay wanted it ALL!So they set up willing minority contracting dupes content with getting scraps i business as phony minority contractors so the equity money due real contracting firms when back into white hands.

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