News

The Department of Justice announced today that Wisconsin-based Novum Structures LLC (Novum) has agreed to enter a guilty plea and pay $3 million to resolve its criminal and civil liability arising from its improper use of foreign materials on construction projects involving federal funds. This use was in violation of contractual provisions implementing various domestic preference statutes, often referred to colloquially as the “Buy America” requirements. Novum specializes in the design and construction of glass space frames often used in roofs and atrium enclosures.

LOS ANGELES – A man who operated two businesses that sold office supplies to the federal government has been convicted by a federal jury of giving illegal gifts to federal employees who did business with his companies.

Earlier today, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York (“the Office”) filed fraud charges in Brooklyn federal court against Tishman Construction Corporation (“Tishman Construction”), one of the largest construction companies in New York City. Tishman Construction is charged with mail and wire fraud conspiracy for improperly billing its clients more than $5 million over a ten-year period for hours not worked and at rates that were in excess of the agreed upon contract rate.

KANSAS CITY, KAN. - The co-owner of a defunct Missouri construction company has been sentenced to 51 months in federal prison for defrauding a federal program that set aside contracts for businesses owned by service-disabled veterans, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said Thursday.

On October 28, 2015, U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) special agents from New York City recovered a Works Progress Administration (WPA) etching, “Manhattan from Brooklyn” by artist Mortimor Borne, from an antiques store in Hopewell, New Jersey.

Timothy Francis Cashman, a Building Manager for the General Services Administration (“GSA”), was sentenced to 16 months in custody today for accepting bribes and stealing property owned by the United States.

KANSAS CITY, KAN. - A Missouri woman was sentenced Tuesday to 20 months in federal prison for defrauding a federal program that set aside contracts for businesses owned by service-disabled veterans, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said. In addition, she was ordered to pay a $30,000 money judgment.

DENVER – Hemal Ramesh Jhaveri, the owner and former CEO of SofTec Solutions Inc. of Englewood, Colorado, was sentenced in federal court in Denver earlier this week to six months in prison. Jhaveri pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiring to commit the crimes of making false statements to influence the Small Business Administration (SBA) and of filing false federal income tax returns. The conspiracy began in 2006 and continued to 2013.

PHILADELPHIA - Benjamin Twiggs, 37, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was charged by indictment yesterday with one count of making a false statement and one count of transportation of goods taken by fraud, announced United States Attorney Zane David Memeger. The fraud is in connection with the federal Computers for Learning (CFL) program, a program meant to allow federal agencies to donate excess computer equipment to schools and educational nonprofit organizations.

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a report today concluding that GSA’s administration of an expanded Army childcare subsidy program has resulted in mounting backlogs of unprocessed subsidy requests, unanswered emails, unpaid invoices, and unreturned phone calls, to the detriment of Army families. The OIG’s evaluation began earlier this year after GSA’s current Administrator reported serious concerns about the program to the OIG.