Six Indicted For Alleged Concrete Testing Fraud
Thursday, August 04, 2011 - 06:42 PM
For the second time since 2008, a concrete testing laboratory has been indicted for falsifying results of inspections for major private and public projects including the Second Avenue Subway, a LaGuardia Airport Control Tower and the Fulton Street Transit Center.
Six members of American Standard Testing and Consulting Laboratories Inc., including President Alan Fortich were arraigned on Thursday afternoon.
Their arraignment comes just one year after top officials from Testwell Laboratories, another concrete inspection firm, were found guilty of enterprise corruption after falsifying tests on sites including the new Yankee Stadium.
“Because of this fraud, government agencies and private companies paid thousands of dollars for test results that were no more than worthless pieces of paper,” Manhattan DA Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. said in a statement.
After earlier cases against other labs like Testwell, projects around the city were retested and found safe, city officials said. At Yankee stadium, contractors became aware of the falsified inspections before any concrete was poured, according to Alice McGillion, a Yankees spokesperson.
A division of the Department of Buildings dedicated to concrete audits has performed inspections at 375 construction sites and testing laboratories and issued 570 violations since 2010, according to DoB Spokesman Tony Sclafani. From those investigations the DoB revoked or secured surrender of six licenses. 30 laboratories are currently licensed to inspect concrete.
American Standard applied for a renewal in after its license expired in September 2009, but that request was denied, Sclafani said.
The six defendants pleaded not guilty and "vehemently deny the allegations in the indictment, and we shall fight this case," said their lawyer, Richard R. Leff.
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