Investigations

Tenson Construction, Inc. was ordered by a U.S. District Court judge in Minneapolis, MN, to pay $115,000 in restitution to its employees for cheating them out of prevailing wages and benefits required on Federal-aid highway projects. The judge also fined the company $9,000 and sentenced it to 12 months probation. Company owner Paul Tendrup was sentenced to serve five months in jail and owner Bonnie Tendrup to 24 months probation. FHWA has begun a process to debar the company from future federally funded contracts.

A Minnesota-based firm specializing in asphalt and concrete highway construction, Tenson Construction has Federal-aid highway contracts in Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, and Wisconsin. An investigation by OIG, the FBI, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation revealed the firm had failed to pay at least $100,000 in overtime to its employees, and Paul and Bonnie Tendrup had converted their employees’ overtime to regular work hours.