Five firms fined $825K for school construction fraud

Five contractors that worked on Rochester's massive school renovation project have agreed to pay $825,000 in fines as punishment for allegedly skirting rules regarding the use of minority- and women-owned businesses, New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced Thursday night.

The firms reported they had sub-contracted with minority- and women-owned businesses (M/WBEs) for a portion of their materials or labor, as required by law. In fact, according to a whistleblower and Schneiderman, they actually got the materials and labor from non-eligible firms, then in some cases gave the M/WBEs a kickback in exchange for falsified documentation.

"These contractors engaged in flagrant schemes that flouted the diversity rules they were required to meet, and in the process, denied minority- and women-owned businesses a fair shot a winning valuable sub-contracts," Schneiderman said in a statement.

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2016/10/13/schneiderman-rcsd-modernization-fraud-minority-women/92011072/