US: Military contractor indicted on federal charges

An Arkansas company and three of its employees face federal charges for alleged improprieties in their work at Fort Leonard Wood.

Bradley J. Schlozman, the United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced Tuesday that a federal grand jury had indicted them for making false statements to the government related to a construction project at the post.

According to Schlozman, Managed Subcontractors International, Inc. (MSI), an Arkansas corporation, Brentt G. Tumey, 31, director of operations for MSI, and Valerie L. Colby, 51, payroll manager for MSI, both of Rogers, Ark.; and Anibal Tristan Rodriguez, 32, of Dallas Texas, a manager for MSI, were charged in a 52-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City.

Schlozman said in a prepared statement that MSI entered into a contract to provide qualified personnel for framing, drywall hanging, finishing and related trades for a subcontractor working on the construction of the Basic Combat Training Complex at Fort Leonard Wood. The $50 million contract was administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and therefore, under the Davis Bacon Act, wages paid to those workers were required to meet or exceed the prevailing wage rate.

Counts 1 through 50 of the federal indictment allege that MSI and Colby made false statements of compliance for a federal contract, and that Tumey aided and abetted in the making of false statements. Each of the 50 counts alleges a separate instance from Nov. 11, 2002, to July 23, 2003, in which the defendants made the following false statements:

� that no deductions had been made from the full wages earned by any person other than permissible deductions, when in fact MSI had made an unlawful deduction of 10 percent of each of its employees� gross earnings for workers� compensation insurance;

� that the wage rates paid to laborers were not less than the applicable wage rates incorporated into the contract, when in fact MSI was paying its employee drywall hangers and plasters less than the applicable hourly wage rates because of the unlawful 10 percent deduction for workers� compensation insurance;

� that submitted payroll records were correct and complete, when in fact MSI had paid a number of employees a different amount than had been recorded on the payroll records that were submitted with each Statement of Compliance.

Count 51 of the federal indictment alleges that between Nov. 11, 2002, and July 6, 2003, Rodriguez represented a Social Security number to be his own number, when he knew it had not been assigned to him.

Count 52 of the federal indictment alleges that MSI failed to provide workers� compensation coverage to its employees.

Grand jury indictments are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. The next step is that evidence supporting the charges will be presented to a federal trial jury whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard E. Monroe. It was investigated by the Department of Labor, the Department of Defense Inspector General, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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