Summary

On May 4, Srinivas Thimmappa, a former project manager for Trataros Construction, Inc. (TCI), Brooklyn, NY, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn to pay $310,000 in fines and restitution for making false statements to federal agents. The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (NY-MTA), of which the NY-CTA is a part, is the FTA’s largest grantee. TCI had been awarded a one-year job order construction contract with the NY-MTA with a $40 million ceiling, and Thimmappa’s duties included subcontractor selection, approving subcontractor invoices, and submitting TCI invoices to NY-CTA. In November 2004, Thimmappa pled guilty to a charge of false statements made to investigators from DOT OIG, the General Services Administration’s OIG and the FBI. Thimmappa claimed that in addition to his TCI employment, he performed part-time engineering work for a TCI subcontractor, Logix Construction Services (Logix), but denied having any other role in the company. Investigation found that Logix was a front company, established and used by Thimmappa under a false invoicing scheme to steal TCI funds. The ongoing investigation is being conducted jointly with GSA-OIG and the FBI.