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themillenne ws .com The Millen News Page 9 - Wednesday, December 29, 2021 Housing Balfour Beatty Communi ties LLC (BBC), one of the nation’s largest providers of privatized military housing to the U.S. Armed Forces, pled guilty to defrauding the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Navy, in connection with a fraudulent scheme to obtain performance bonuses by submitting false information to the U.S. military. BBC entered the plea, pursu ant to plea agreement with the United States, before U.S. Dis trict Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in the District of Columbia on Wednesday. Under the terms of the plea agreement, BBC agreed to pay more than $33.6 million in criminal fines and over $31.8 million in restitution to the U.S. military, serve three years of probation, and engage an independent compliance monitor for a period of three years. “Instead of promptly repair ing housing for U.S. service- members as required, BBC lied about the repairs to pocket millions of dollars in perfor mance bonuses,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. “This pervasive fraud was a consequence of BBC’s broken corporate culture, which valued profit over the welfare of servicemembers. Today’s global resolution sends a clear message to companies that if they do not maintain adequate compliance programs, volun tarily self-disclose misconduct, and fully cooperate with the government, they will pay a price that outweighs the profits they once reaped.” Separately, BBC entered into a False Claims Act (FCA) settle ment under which it is obligat ed to pay approximately $35.2 million in civil restitution and penalties to the United States, which the Justice Department credited against BBC’s criminal restitution and fine. Law en forcement within the Southern District of Georgia assisted in reaching this settlement by in vestigating BBC’s misconduct at Fort Stewart/Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, and Fort Gordon in Augusta. “The men and women who live in our nation’s military housing, including those at Fort Stewart and Fort Gordon, de serve prompt and professional maintenance service from their housing providers,” said David H. Estes, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. “That BBC would not only fail to deliver this service, but also falsify infomiation to line their own pockets is despicable. Our office will work tirelessly with our law enforcement partners, and other components of the Department of Justice, to make sure those who provide subpar service to the military and lie about it are held accountable.” According to court documents, BBC was a diversified real estate services company, head quartered in Malvern, Pennsyl vania, that operated privatized military housing communities contractor found guilty of defrauding military at 21 U.S. Air Force, 16 U.S. Army, and 18 U.S. Navy bases across the United States, in which tens of thousands of ser vice members and their families lived. BBC earned fees for the various phases of development and management of each hous ing community, from design and construction to ongoing community management and maintenance, and service mem bers paid their living allowance, known as Basic Allowance for Housing, in the form of rest to BBC to live in the com munities. BBC’s fees for the ongo ing property management and main tenance of its military housing communities generally consisted of (1) a base fee, paid to BBC month ly and (2) performance incentive fees, paid to BBC quarterly or semi-annual ly. Perfomiance Incentive Fees were payable only upon the approval of the relevant service branch. To obtain the incen tive fees, BBC was required to submit to the service branches proof that it had satisfied writ ten performance objectives related to, among other things, maintenance of the housing communities and resident sat isfaction. The service branches relied on BBC’s submissions in deciding whether to approve the payment of relevant perfor mance incentive fees. According to court documents, from around 2013 to around 2019, BBC employees falsi fied information so that BBC’s incentive fee requests falsely reflected that BBC had met performance objectives. In real ity, BBC did not legitimately meet those objectives in many of the quarters during that time, primarily the objectives related to maintenance and resident satisfaction, at various military housing projects. Specifically, BBC employees altered or manipulated data in property management software and de stroyed and falsified resident comment cards to falsely inflate these metrics and, ultimately, to fraudulently induce the service branches to pay performance incentive fees which BBC had not earned. As a result, according to court documents, there were lengthy and unnecessary delays in the resolution of mainte nance issues to the detriment of residents. In addition, the military service branches had an inaccurate view of the state of BBC’s military housing com munities and were unable to assess, and potentially correct, BBC’s performance. A number of relevant con siderations contributed to the department’s criminal resolu tion with BBC, including the nature and seriousness of the offense, the pervasiveness of the misconduct among BBC’s employees and at multiple mili tary installations, and the state of BBC’s compliance program and the progress of its reme diation, including the fact that BBC’s compliance program and internal controls have not been fully implemented or tested to demonstrate that they would prevent and detect similar mis conduct in the future. As part of BBC’s plea agree ment, BBC agreed to cooperate fully with the United States in all matters relating to the con duct covered by the plea agree ment and other conduct under investigation by the United States, to self-report violations of U.S. federal criminal law, and to continue to implement a compliance and ethics program designed to effectively detect and deter violations of U.S. anti-fraud laws throughout its operations. “In defrauding our country's military services, BBC took ad vantage of their unique position as a military housing provider and put greed and personal profit above our servicemem bers,” said FBI Deputy Director Paul M. Abbate. “Today's guilty plea reaffirms the FBI, along with our partners, are commit ted to preventing such dis graceful crimes and will work tirelessly to bring those who engage in this type of crime to justice.” “The Air Force Office of Spe cial Investigations is committed to protecting the integrity of the Department of the Air Force’s procurement process,” said Special Agent Paul Wachsmuth, Director AFOSI Office of Pro curement Fraud Investigations. “The extensive and dedicated collaborative efforts between AFOSI, the Air Force Audit Agency, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the Department of Justice in this investigation was paramount in ensuring the safety and well being of our warfighters and their families.” “The health and safety of ser vice members and their families remains of critical importance to the DoD Office of Inspector Balfour Beatty General's Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS),” said Principal Deputy Director James R. Ives of DCIS. “DCIS and our law enforcement part ners are committed to working with the Department of Justice to hold companies accountable when they emphasize profits over the well-being of those who honorably serve our na tion.” “This judgment demonstrates the commitment CID Special Agents have to protect soldiers’ families against deceitfulness and fraud, while also ensur ing the integrity of the military privatization housing initiative, which is to provide safe, qual ity, well-maintained housing for our military families,” said Special Agent in Charge Frank Robey of the Army Criminal Investigation Division’s (CID) Major Procurement Fraud Unit. “Throughout this investiga tion, Army CID special agents worked closely with federal authorities emphasizing the im portance of successful partner ships with other law enforce ment agencies.” “Balfour Beatty’s scheme to de lay service request entries into their electronic tracking system for housing aboard Naval Air Station Key West to increase their performance-based award violated their contract and wast ed valuable taxpayer money,” said Special Agent in Charge Thomas Cannizzo of the NCIS Southeast Field Office. “NCIS and our partners remain com mitted to rooting out fraud and corruption that threatens the in tegrity of the Department of the Navy’s procurement process.” “The Western District of Texas is home to some of the larg est military installations in the country and our district works tirelessly to protect and serve our military families,” said U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff for the Western District of Texas. “The resolution entered with BBC concerns conduct that impacted military families in our district at Lackland Air Force Base and Fort Bliss Army Base. This resolution is an important step in holding private military housing providers accountable to our servicemembers and their families.” “The defendants’ greed under mined a program designed to protect servicemembers’ homes while they courageously fight to protect our homeland,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester for the Western District of Oklahoma. “Servicemembers and their families deserve bet ter. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to protect our military community from fraudulent conduct of all kinds, particularly the integrity of DoD housing programs.” This resolution follows the prior entry of guilty pleas by two BBC managers. In April 2021, Stacy Cabrera, a former community manager of BBC, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. In June 2021, Rick Cunefare, a former regional manager of BBC, pleaded guilty to major fraud against the United States. Air Force OSI, DCIS, Army- CID, NCIS, and the FBI’s Oklahoma City Field Office investigated the case. The Air Force Audit Agency also pro vided assistance. Trial Attorneys Michael P. McCarthy and Siji Moore of the Justice Department’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case. Trials Attorneys Laura E. Hill and Elspeth England of the Civil Division’s Fraud Sec tion, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Patrick Schwedler and Jonathan Porter of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, Assistant U.S. At torney Ron Gallegos of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the West ern District of Oklahoma, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mary Kruger and Jacquelyn Chris- tilles of the U.S. Attorney’s Of fice for the Western District of Texas represented the govern ment in the civil case. 1 or .ill your biiiiititiirp* ItoTne office] I'., i .ill in visit us tiitliiir* A faUw Ami*"- As JSFz W BEST Mj * Liberty St totoniEboiD -533-afcEI (ZJJ1) office solutions ■wto iUiPWta JtUkaiii. Hll Happpy New Year 2022! Your Hometown Insurance Agent! TEAM INSURANCE GROUP, INC, "You're In Good Hands With Our Team 1 ’ Home - Auto - Commercial - Life - Health A Bonds (478)982-4373 Happy New Year! 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