The Miami Herald reported:
"The U.S. Court of Federal Claims found last week that Rosemary Barbour's company, Jackson, Miss.,-based Alcatec LLC, had engaged in a fraudulent billing scheme as part of a $100 million, five-year maintenance contract with FEMA.
She was ordered to pay more than $350,000 in penalties and damages. In often colorful language, the judge described the testimony of Rosemary Barbour during an eight-day trial in May in Jackson as "exasperating" and "bumble-headed."
Rosemary Barbour, the company's sole owner, is the wife of the governor's nephew, Charles Barbour, a former Hinds County supervisor who last week lost a Mississippi Senate GOP primary.
Gov. Barbour is not affiliated with the company. "The governor doesn't know anything about it," said Laura Hipp, his press secretary...
Rosemary Barbour initially filed a claim against FEMA in 2008 for $3.8 million of the unpaid balance of an initial $6.1 million contract the company received in 2006 to periodically inspect the trailers. The agency had reduced the amount of the contract it said it would pay and later terminated the contract.
In response to Barbour's claim, the federal government made a counter-claim, arguing that the company had willfully double-billed FEMA and falsified inspection reports.
The government said, according to the court ruling, that FEMA did not pay because it alleged that Alcatec "defrauded the government both by knowingly submitting vouchers contrary to the contract's terms and by either duplicating or falsifying inspection reports."
Barbour maintained that she had put in proper invoicing procedures and that if there was a problem, it was done by lower-level employees.
Court of Federal Claims Judge Christine Miller agreed with the government's case and dismissed Rosemary Barbour's claim, ordering her to pay $77,000 in penalties and $275,050 in damages.
In scathing terms, Miller wrote that Barbour's testimony "over two-and-one-half days, if nothing else was clearly and convincingly exasperating."
Miller also wrote, "what the court did not appreciate was Ms. Barbour's bumble-headed game of eluding defense counsel's questions." The judge also criticized FEMA for its "inexcusable mismanagement" of the contract....."
Rosemary Barbour is a controversial figure in North Mississippi who received millions of dollars in often no-bid federal contracts after Katrina to provide showers, tents and laundry facilities — drawing charges of favoritism because of her connection to the governor. His office and FEMA denied any connection at the time, including in a story in the New York Times. According to fedspending.org, an independent website, Alcatec LLC won $21.8 million in 87 federal contracts from 2000 to 2009. Her company is named for her children, Allen and Camille.
The Guatemalan-born Barbour, 44, qualified for government preference programs as a woman and as a Hispanic. Her company is still operating and is listed as being "in good standing" by the Mississippi secretary of state."
Article
The Court concluded:
"The Government proved by clear and convincing evidence plaintiff’s fraudulent scheme to manipulate the dates on PMI checklists that ultimately formed the basis of claims against the Government and that called for the forfeiture of plaintiff’s claim for phase-in costs. Acts amounting to recklessness undergird the findings supporting FCA liability and penalties for a failure to adopt reasonable procedures to address a persistent problem of duplicate PMI checklists that plagued administration of this contract. These results are grounded in the court’s impression of the witnesses and evidence presented, but the forfeiture met the high burden of proof required to impose that penalty. Although plaintiff’s counsel admirably advocated for his client’s refrain of innocent mistake, in the end, the story that emerged was not one of mistake, but one demonstrating a specific intent to deceive FEMA with regard to the dates on which inspections were performed and a reckless indifference to the hundreds of duplicate inspections that were billed to FEMA. See Kamen Soap, 124 F. Supp. at 620 (“It is difficult . . . to make up a story that is not apart of . . . one continuous design.”). Accordingly, based on the foregoing, the Clerk of the Court shall enter judgment, as follows:
1. Against plaintiff on its claim for the unpaid balance of $3.8 million and for defendant on its counterclaim for forfeiture of plaintiff’s claim pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2514.
2. For defendant on its counterclaim pursuant to 31 U.S.C. § 3729(a)(1) in the amount of $77,000.00 in penalties and damages in the amount of $275,050.00."
Copy of order
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Court: Alcatec had a "fraudulent scheme".
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16 comments:
Wow. Interesting timing. It's not what you know...
Congratulations! Once again YOU are on top of a relevant, breaking story. On what date was this article published? Wonder why no Mississippi newspapers or other media outlet's have published anything on this? Where and when was the trial held?
Filed the day after the runoff election. Amazing. These people all have some serious nerve.
It has also been reported by the SunHerald http://www.sunherald.com/2011/08/31/3391253/judge-rules-barbour-relative-defrauded.html#disqus_thread
JFP has. No mention at y'all, no surprise since they threw everything up the Barbour camp gave them in the #25 race. Was pretty clear whose side they were on.
Weird. I haven't noticed anything on politico, either. That means it must not be real. I suspect the judge's order is simply more dirty campaigning by Longwitz. (see the judge's name vs. the way it is signed? clearly this is a woman with a similar name, trying to impersonate a judge by just using her initials).
THhs is on the C-L website.
Well, that explains the $80,000 in direct mail I got from Charles.
As the large lame duck prepares to leave, Austin's footprints dot the Republican landscape>
Question for Kingfish:
This is serious stuff and some big money. Are indictments possible? probable?
Very serious stuff. SO ironic the ruling came down 1 day after the primary run-off. I bet those Charles Barbour supporters are having second thoughts...
How is it possible NO criminal charges are being filed? How is it possible that this company can still receive state/federal contracts?
Friends/relatives in high places?
strange coincidence....her husband just lost to the guy who was involved in post-Katrina efforts. Per his website-''In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Will answered Mississippi’s call for help. He went to work for Governor Haley Barbour’s Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal, where he gave his energy and talents to help our State recover from its worst natural disaster. Will considered it an honor to work for Haley, and he wants to continue to serve the people of our great State. ''
Not sure but seem to recall that Will's wife as well was involved in that commission as well.
Curious if the commission had any involvement, insight,recommendations, etc., on katrina fema contracts.
2:06 The Commission was a privately funded entity (mostly funded by Mr. Jim Barksdale). It had no role with regards to FEMA contracts. FEMA and the federal govt were in charge there. Nice try.
Charles Barbour was beaten, soundly, and even without the news of this judgment hanging over him and his wife.
Hard to forget how hard Gov Barbour was on the black women who'd been in jail 16 yrs for theft of was it 11 dollars and he nor many others thought they had served long enough. Tho he finally let them out telling them not to come back here. Now his niece in law has apparently mis used some parts of the miillions in white collar misappropriations she took .Miami Herald story sd she got 21.8 million from 2000-2006 in 87 contracts/ no bid- and of that money she only paid a fine of 350k - no incarceration and the verdict was held off till after the election. So it pays to know how to rip off the gov't- I imagine from this verdict many others are taking note.
11:58 You apparently don't understand that people (i.e., jurors) react a lot more strongly to someone who pullsa gun on someone and threatens to kill them, even if it's for only $11, than someone who embezzles, swindles, whatever, without the immediate threat of violence and death. That's why "armed robbery" is different than "robbery". The two nitwits who organized an armed robbery and and picked a victim who only carried $11, well - they're as stupid as they are dangerous to society. They got jailed for the dangerous part, not thw stupidity.
I worked for Alcatel as a preventative maintenence technician. At one point the pay scheme was something like this. If you work 90 hours in one week and you pay was $15 an hour, they wood divide $600 as your base pay by the 90 hours you worked that week to come up with your overtime rate. They would then pay time and a half on this rate. So the overtime rate for a 90 hour week would be $10 an hour.
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