< Back to front page Text size – +

Big Dig contractor pleads guilty

E-mail|Link|Comments () May 27, 2009 08:08 PM

By Globe Staff

A company that worked on a Big Dig contract was sentenced today to one year of probation and a $65,000 fine and a $400 special assessment for submitting false claims on the project, federal prosecutors said.

Island Lath and Plaster Inc. was sentenced by US District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, the US attorney's office said in a statement.

Prosecutors said the scheme involved the fraudulent billing of apprentice workers at the higher rate of pay for journeymen, which meant that the project overpaid the contractor. The scheme also involved fraud against the US Department of Transportation's Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program, the prosecutors said.

The scheme allegedly began in 2002 and extended through 2006, prosecutors said, when Island was doing work on behalf of Adams Management Group Inc., a subcontractor to McCourt Construction Co., on the tunnel finishes contract.

The scheme also involved fraud against the disadvantaged business program because Adams was the minority subcontractor but the work was substantially performed by Island. Last week, Adams pleaded guilty to the same scheme; it will be sentenced in September, prosecutors said.