Hanford Subcontractor Settles Federal Fraud Case
Sage Tec and its owner, Laura Shikashio, have agreed to pay $235,000 to settle allegations of subcontracting fraud at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Department of Justice said on Oct. 6.
The announcement came less than a month after a second Hanford-area company in the federal court case, Federal Engineers & Constructors (FE&C), agreed to settle the lawsuit.
Sage Tec was accused of serving as a front company to win two subcontracts with then-site cleanup contractor Washington Closure Hanford as a small, woman-owned business. But most of the work under the two subcontracts awarded in 2010 and 2012 was provided by FE&C, which did not qualify as a small, woman-owned business, the Justice Department alleged.
Washington Closure had contract requirements to provide work to small, disadvantaged businesses, such as women-owned companies. Shikashio, who was marred to a former FE&C vice president, was the only employee of Sage Tec, which owned no equipment, according to the lawsuit. The two subcontracts were valued at close to $20 million.
Neither Sage Tec nor FE&C admitted any liability in the settlements. Washington Closure, the former Hanford River Corridor cleanup prime that remains a defendant in a trial set for Feb. 12, 2018, also has admitted no wrongdoing.
The lawsuit was filed in 2010 by small business Savage Logistics and its owner, Salina Savage. The Department of Justice intervened in the case in 2013. Under provisions of the False Claims Act, Savage Logistics and its owner will receive some of the settlement money for their role in exposing alleged government fraud. They will receive $45,000 from the Sage Tec settlement and $470,000 from the FE&C settlement. In separate agreements, Sage Tec will pay $45,000 and FE&C will pay $100,000 to Savage Logistics for attorney costs and fees.
Hanford Vapor Trial Rescheduled Again
The federal trial for the Hanford Site chemical vapors safety lawsuit case has been delayed until Aug. 29, 2018.
Judge Thomas Rice, of U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington, agreed Thursday to delay the trial and interim deadlines in the case by about 30 days at the request of defendants and plaintiffs. The next deadline in the case is now Nov. 9 for plaintiffs to identify experts and provide experts’ reports. The trial would begin toward the end of August 2018.
Parties in the case requested the delay to allow more time to pursue a settlement agreement. The most recent mediation session, held Sept. 18-19, did not lead to an agreement in addressing plaintiffs’ demands for increased worker protections from vapors associated with underground tanks holding 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste at the former plutonium production site.
This is the seventh time the trial has been rescheduled, with the last five times to allow time for mediation and settlement talks.
The state of Washington, the watchdog group Hanford Challenge, and the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 598 sued the Department of Energy and its Hanford tank farm contractor, Washington River Protection Solutions, in September 2015. The plaintiffs say Hanford workers have been seriously injured by exposure to chemical vapors from the tanks. DOE has argued that reports of possible exposures have declined substantially since supplied air respirators were required for most work inside the tank farms starting in August 2016.
