“The president of a Pennsylvania environmental company was charged this week with two counts of wire fraud for failing to disclose information about a government contract to demolish a building at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, according to federal court records.
Michael Fullard of Fullard Environmental Controls in Ford City, Pa., was indicted Monday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for allegedly attempting to defraud the Department of the Navy during negotiations in 2006 and 2007, according to the indictment. He failed to disclose his company’s profit margins and a deal he had cut with a subcontractor on the $2.2 million demolition job, court records say.
The indictment said Fullard agreed to pay a Pennsylvania subcontractor about $800,000 to do the bulk of the work but told Navy officials the demolition would be performed by his company and its employees. He “knew such representation was false and fraudulent when made,” the indictment says.
Fullard’s company earned the contract through a Small Business Administration program that sets aside certain federal contracts for minority-owned businesses, the indictment said. The program requires the businesses to disclose their subcontractors and profit margins, which Fullard allegedly never did when negotiating with the Navy over the cost to demolish the building, which was identified in the indictment only as “Building 7.”