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 Friday.
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 for attorney costs and fees.
