If you have not gotten the point by now that you should take DBE regulations serious, you should. The DOT Inspector General posted these two item on its web page today:
“On September 11, 2012, Michael Paletta, president of Crossboro Construction Contracting, pled guilty in United States District Court, New York, New York, to a mail fraud conspiracy. Between approximately 1994 and March 2011, Mr. Paletta, on behalf of Crossboro (a non-DBE), conspired with MS Construction (a DBE) to perform construction work on various federally-funded bridge projects in Manhattan and other boroughs where MS Construction was the purported DBE subcontractor. MS Construction was paid approximately 5% as its “fee” and relied upon Crossboro for performance of the actual work.”
“On September 5, 2012, Dennis Degrazia, pled guilty in U.S. District Court, Boston, Massachusetts, for his role in a scheme to impede, impair, and obstruct the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program. In May 2011, David Hebert, Robert Dickerson, and Mr. Degrazia were indicted in conjunction with this scheme.”
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Wally Zimolong
Wally represents contractors (and subcontractors) and developers. His clients build and develop residential, commercial, and industrial properties nationwide. Wally enjoys working with the owners of the businesses he represents because they tend to be entrepreneurs and all around interesting people.
