Details of the methods used by
three Chicago area minority set aside subcontractors accused by federal
prosecutors of sham involvement on major public construction projects including
the North Avenue Bridge, and the Chicago Transit Authority Red Line and Brown
Line projects, are emerging from documents filed in court along with the
charging papers. According to e-mail documents exchanged between employees of
the accused businesses, and between the accused subcontractors and McHugh
Construction, McHugh employees with the needed skills were shifted off the
McHugh payroll onto the subcontractors’ payrolls when the subs were active on
site, and then shifted back to McHugh’s payroll as the subcontractors’ work
neared completion. Foremen,
superintendents, carpenters, laborers, equipment operators and oilers were
involved in this payroll transfer, according to an FBI affidavit.
Certain e-mails reflect the
understanding between accused fraudulent set aside subcontractor ASI and its
concrete suppliers that “we aren’t going to worry about the name change from
McHugh to Perdel Contracting on delivery tickets, so long as the billing gets
billed through Perdel.” The affidavit
goes on to allege that ASI’s subs and suppliers took technical questions
directly to McHugh “because ASI’s project managers did not have the ability to
answer the questions.”
Apparently cross checking employee
names and addresses between general contractor payrolls before and after a set
aside contractor is on site with the set aside contractor’s payrolls during the
set aside’s on site work should be a first order priority of Mayor Emmanuel’s
promised new $11 million fraud prevention program.
