Summary

On February 3, 2014, Scott Bonamase, Owner, Bonamase Construction, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court, Cleveland, Ohio, to the failure to pay taxes and false statements related to their contracts with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). 

Between 2007 and 2009, Bonamase worked on a HUD funded project in Youngstown, Ohio, and on various federally-funded ODOT construction projects. Investigation disclosed Bonamase conspired to submit false tax returns to the IRS, underreported employees' quarterly wages, and made false statements on certified payroll forms submitted to HUD and ODOT, indicating that they paid their employees prevailing wages, when they did not. The federally funded ODOT projects that Bonamase worked on, which included an ARRA-funded project, totaled roughly $1,152,015.

We conducted this investigation jointly with the Department of Labor-OIG, Housing and Urban Development-OIG, the IRS, and the USAO.