Summary

On March 19, David Appleby, president of Appleby NW, Inc. a steel fabrication company located in Granite Falls, Washington, pled guilty in U.S. District Court, Seattle, Washington, for making and using false documents in relation to his work on the $2.4 billion Tukwila, Washington Light Rail–Line Project. Sentencing is set for July 10, 2009. Mr. Appleby successfully bid to fabricate steel casings for the footings for the four mile elevated portion of the Tukwila, Washington section of the $2.4 billion Sound Transit Light Rail Project, which is funded by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Between May 2005 and November 2006, Mr. Appleby falsified 36 reports to make it appear that Appleby NW, Inc. had fabricated the casings out of M270 Grade 50 steel as required by the contract, when in fact casings had been fabricated out of a lesser grade, Grade 36, steel. Experts retained by Sound Transit and the FTA have concluded that the use of lesser grade steel does not present a safety issue. Our investigation was conducted jointly with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance provided by FTA.