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Crimes and misdemeanors: Part two Get the word out to your people that any form of illegal conduct – bribery and racketeering among them – will be grounds for immediate termination.
L ast week, attorney G. William Quatman, FAIA, Esq. wrote about a concerning and informative set of cases involving illegal activity among architects and engineers. He’s back this week with a conclusive look at a few more cases of corruption in the A/E industry.
William Quatman
o ffi cial’s taxes. As to the architect, a jury convicted him of conspiracy and filing a false tax return, and he was sentenced to 18 months in prison, plus fined $25,000. “Companies have been fined and design professionals have gone to jail for bribery, conspiracy, and kick- backs.”
BRIBERY. In one 1993 case, a county executive was convicted of conspiring to violate federal brib- ery and extortion statutes, as well as conspiracy to commit mail fraud for taking a bribe from an architect. Evidence showed that the county execu- tive received a $30,000 payment shortly after he provided assistance to the architect in obtaining a $2,275,000 contract for a multi-purpose civic center and arena. He was also charged with tax evasion for not reporting payment as income. Th e architectural firm attempted to characterize the payment as a “loan,” and even back-dated a prom- issory note after the IRS began to investigate the
See WILLIAM QUATMAN, page 8
THE ZWEIG LETTER January 9, 2017, ISSUE 1182 30, 2017, I SUE 185
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