A former subcontractor for URS-CH2M Oak Ridge in Tennessee was sentenced this week to 366 days in prison and ordered to repay the Internal Revenue Service more than $2.3 million for a scheme to defraud the federal government.
The Justice Department said in a Tuesday news release that Joseph Anthony Armes, II, 38, of Petros, Tenn., was sentenced to serve 12 months plus one day in prison for conspiring to defraud the IRS and the Department of Energy. He will then serve three years of probation, under the sentence imposed by Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Phillips in Tennessee.
Armes, who pleaded guilty in August 2016, is the former operator of Transportation, Operations, and Professional Services (TOPS) and other business concerns in East Tennessee. After DOE in April 2011 awarded UCOR the prime contract for cleanup of the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), site of former uranium enrichment operations, TOPS landed a $24 million subcontract for waste transportation services to the ETTP project in June 2011.
According to a plea agreement, Armes “channeled payments to the son of UCOR’s President from TOPS and other businesses operated by Armes through an elaborate system of false invoices and cash payments from June 2011 through July 2013,” the press release says.
The Justice Department did not disclose the name of the UCOR president’s son. Leo Sain was president of UCOR during the time period in question.
TOPS had indicated to DOE it did not have a conflict of interest with UCOR.
The ExchangeMonitor reported in 2014 that TOPS had been raided by federal agents and the TOPS’ subcontract work had been reassigned to other subcontractors.
The Justice Department said Armes conspired with a tax preparer and other unidentified individuals to submit false tax forms to the IRS to reduce the company’s federal tax burden for 2007 through 2012, which resulted in a tax loss to the IRS of $1.4 million.
The tax preparer, Roger Beu, in September was sentenced to 41 months in prison in connection with the case.
UCOR could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon..
