Three Indicted in Alleged Highway-Contracting Fraud |
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USDOT Office of the Inspector General
February 5, 1999
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, February 5, 1999
Contact: Jeff Nelligan
Telephone: (202) 366-6312
OIG 5-99
Two Ohio men and a woman from West Virginia have been indicted by a federal grand jury for alleged fraud in connection with abuse of a disadvantaged-business program associated with federal highway contracting, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General announced today.
A grand jury in Wheeling, W. Va., indicted Kermit Wayne Bunn of Marietta, Ohio; Charles Carlton Striblin of Belpre, Ohio; and Patricia A. Kelly of Davisville W, Va.
The three are accused of conspiring with each other and with Brenda Kay Ware, Brothers Construction Company of Ohio, Inc., and Tri-State Asphalt Corporation and others to use the mail and telephones to obtain money under false pretenses. Ware and the two construction firms are not named in this indictment, but have been charged separately.
Evidence supporting the Brothers Construction and Tri-State cases indicated that Tri-State entered into a $186,000-subcontract under which Brothers Construction, a disadvantaged construction company, was to install part of a drainage system on a West Virginia state highway project. In June of 1994, a third party, Brenda Kay Ware, entered into a secret illegal agreement with Kermit Bunn, the president of Bunn Construction of Ohio, Inc. a non-disadvantaged construction company, under which Bunn Construction would covertly perform Brothers Construction’s work while representing that Brothers Construction was doing the work. Tri-State was charged because it allegedly knew of and condoned the illegal deal between Brothers Construction and Bunn Construction and misled the state highway division into believing that Brothers Construction had actually performed the work on the project.
The indictment further alleges that Tri-State Asphalt and another firm -- which does not face charges and is under new management -- were awarded federal highway project contracts totaling more than $11 million.