Digging a Big Hole

A false or misleading statement may happen honestly

It has been held that a claim or statement may be false even though it contains no untrue information or entries if, within the totality of the circumstances, the claim is not valid.

In a recent case regarding the supply of inadequate concrete to Boston’s “Big Dig,” a federal court of appeals affirmed the criminal convictions of two principals of a concrete contractor for knowingly making false claims to the government.

False claims against the government are a serious offense and can carry civil (monetary) and criminal penalties. Contractors who do business with the government need to take care to avoid submitting false information. The federal government and most states have passed False Claims Acts that prohibit fraud in contracting and carry stiff penalties. In order to be criminally liable, an individual must know their claims were false at the time they were made. It has been held that a claim or statement may be false even though it contains no untrue information or entries if, within the totality of the circumstances, the claim is not valid.

In United States v. Prosperi (July 13, 2012), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed the criminal convictions of two principals of Aggregate Industries NE, Inc. (Aggregate) for knowingly providing non–conforming concrete to the Big Dig.

The Big Dig, a central artery/tunnel project in downtown Boston, lasted from 1991 to 2007. It is one of the largest and most expensive public works projects in the history of the United States. At the time of its completion, it cost an estimated $14.6 billion.

The Big Dig was managed by a joint venture between Bechtel Infrastructure and Parsons Brinkerhoff Quade & Douglas (B/PB). These companies acted as design consultants and managed the construction, which was performed by multiple major general contractors and various subcontractors. Overall, approximately 150 construction contracts were awarded in connection with the Big Dig.

The Big Dig required approximately 4.2 million cubic yards of concrete. Aggregate supplied 60 percent of the concrete for project. The Big Dig’s concrete suppliers were required to: (1) adhere to a certain mix design, or recipe, for the concrete, based on the intended use; (2) have plants with an automatic batching system that ensured the proper mixture of each load, or batch, of concrete; (3) have in place recorders that captured information regarding the mix design, as well as the date and time of batching for each load of concrete, and provide a printout, called a “batch ticket,” containing all the required information; (4) not add any additional water after the concrete mixture was loaded onto trucks for delivery; and (5) in most circumstances, place the concrete at the construction site within 90 minutes of the time it was mixed and loaded onto the delivery trucks.

The batch tickets served as a quality control mechanism. Aggregate’s drivers would give the batch tickets to B/PB inspectors as they delivered their loads. The inspectors checked the batch tickets for certain criteria, including the time the concrete was loaded, the mix design, the volume loaded and the amount placed.

In the mid-1990’s, Aggregate began to supply non-conforming concrete to the Big Dig. Aggregate instituted a practice of topping-off loads of leftover concrete, sometimes with concrete of a different mix design that met contract specifications. Aggregate would provide the entire load as if it were fresh concrete. These loads were designated “10/9” loads, which was the radio call signal that drivers used to alert the dispatcher they had leftover concrete.

The decision to use 10/9 concrete on the Big Dig was made by Aggregate’s Ready Mix Division management, including Robert Prosperi, general manager, and Gregory Stevenson, operations manager. Once this process was instituted, 10/9 concrete was sent to the Big Dig on a daily basis. Dispatchers kept logs of the 10/9 concrete and these logs were provided to Prosperi, Stevenson and others on a daily basis.