U.S. attorney charges seven with fraud at NYC construction sites

Seven individuals were arrested yesterday on charges that they falsified testing documents at four construction sites in the city. The accused include two construction testing company owners and officials from three separate contracting companies. They face allegations of mail and wire fraud, and falsifying test documents for welding, soil boring and asphalt inspections. The alleged fraudulent activity, which was unraveled by investigators working on behalf of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the New York City Department of Investigation, was captured through covert recordings that reportedly prove the accused made payoffs for the falsified papers. Although it is not immediately clear what construction sites were involved in the fraud, the charges were brought by the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn. [NYT]