3 accused of rigging BHA bidding process
2 ex-employees, Brockton man are indicted
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A Jamaica Plain couple and a Brockton man were indicted by a Suffolk grand jury yesterday on charges they rigged the bidding process for Boston Housing Authority construction projects by funneling jobs to their own companies, according to Attorney General Martha Coakley's office.
The attorney general's office alleges that Mark Collins, 37, and his wife, Gisela, 38, both former housing authority employees, submitted bids for and received contracts for 15 flooring jobs at the BHA worth more than $47,000.
Neither disclosed the fact that they owned the contracting company, Citypoint Construction Inc., Coakley's office said.
A third person, Jayson Tracey, 38, of Brockton allegedly submitted false bids for other construction contracts from competing firms so that bids from his own company, Flooring
The Collins and Tracey cases are not related.
Mark Collins faces 10 counts of procurement fraud and a charge of conflict of interest by a municipal employee. His wife, a former BHA manager, is also charged with conflict of interest by a municipal employee for allegedly using her influence in the housing authority to help her husband win contracts.
Tracey is charged with seven counts of procurement fraud for the contracts the attorney general says he illegally obtained.
Mark Collins defended himself and his wife in a telephone interview last night.
"I started a company. That I did legitimately," Collins said. "I only did a few jobs for them. Everything was done legitimately by the protocol of their standards."
Collins said his superiors knew that he owned Citypoint Construction.
He also said the state was grossly overestimating the amount of money he made off BHA contracts.
"It was all smaller jobs, $500 jobs and a couple larger jobs," he said.
Collins, who had worked as a resident custodian for the housing authority, also defended his wife, who had worked as a property manager in a different building, saying she did not use her influence to help Citypoint gain contracts.
Collins also contended that he had no idea he was under indictment and said he was not aware he had to appear in court later this month for arraignment.
The Collinses were fired from the BHA and evicted from the housing authority apartments they had been living in as employees.
Coakley also alleges that Mark Collins damaged the apartment in anger as he was being evicted. The grand jury indicted him on a charge of wanton destruction of property over $250.
The alleged fraud was disclosed through an investigation by the state inspector general's office. The case will be prosecuted by Coakley's corruption and fraud division.
The three defendants are scheduled to be arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on Oct. 22.
There was no phone number listed for Tracey.
John Guilfoil can be reached at jguilfoil@globe.com.
