Summary

On March 21, 2013, Yona Jimenez, a/k/a "Yona J. Bocchino", the president and owner of Global Marine Construction Supply (GMCS), a certified DBE, pled guilty in United States District Court, White Plains, New York, to mail fraud.

On October 6, 2011, Jimenez was charged for her role as a pass-through disadvantaged business enterprise (DBE) purporting to provide structural steel on the FHWA-funded Cross Westchester Expressway Project. Between approximately June 2006 and October 2009, the general contractor claimed that GMCS had been awarded a subcontract valued over $6 million to supply structural steel to reconstruct bridges, although another company (a non-DBE) actually supplied the steel. The general contractor then claimed credit for the "services" provided by GMCS towards meeting its DBE goal. GMCS was paid approximately 1% of the subcontract value as acommission. Jimenez was arrested on May 4, 2011, in connection with the above conduct. 

We are conducting this investigation jointly with the NYS-Metropolitan Transportation Authority OIG, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey OIG.