Investigations

On August 9, P.A. Landers, Inc., a Plymouth, Massachusetts, road construction contractor, was ordered to pay a $3 million fine by a U.S. District Court judge in Boston, Massachusetts, as a result of its conviction earlier this year on charges of providing fake and inflated asphalt tickets for paving projects. The company was also ordered to pay $332,686 in restitution to the United States, the Commonwealth, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority and the towns of Chatham and Sandwich, Massachusetts. Former company President Preston Landers was ordered to serve 42 months in prison, pay a $150,000 fine and $332,686 in restitution. Gregory Keelan, the company's former vice president, was ordered to serve 30 months in prison, pay a $10,000 fine and $332,686 in restitution. The company and its two former officials were convicted by a Federal jury in May on charges of conspiracy, mail fraud, and making false claims on $18 million in paving projects between 1996 and March 2003. Landers and Keelan directed company employees to generate false and inflated weight tickets for submission to state and municipal agencies as the basis for payment. Several of the paving projects, including Route 44 between Plymouth and Taunton, Massachusetts, received Federal funds. The company fraudulently overbilled 25 local communities and the state and Federal governments of an estimated $4 million. The company and the two former officials were suspended by FHWA in November 2005. Debarment proceedings are pending. The company also faces an ongoing civil complaint. OIG investigated this case with the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations Division, with assistance from the Massachusetts Highway Department.