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Michigan businessmen sentenced in multimillion-dollar highway construction overbilling scheme

By
Paula Wethington
Paula Wethington
Web Producer
Paula Wethington is a digital producer at CBS Detroit. She previously held digital content roles at NEWSnet, Gannett/USA Today network and The Monroe News in Michigan. She is a graduate of the University of South Carolina.
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Paula Wethington

/ CBS Detroit

Five Michigan men were sentenced to federal prison for their roles in a scheme involving millions of dollars' worth of overbilling on state highway construction projects. 

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan  on Thursday. All five men are former executives of Surveying Solutions Inc. of Standish. 

Andrew Semenchuk, 53, of Rives Junction, and Jeffrey Bartlett, 53, of Standish, were sentenced on Tuesday to 15 months in federal prison after their guilty pleas to conspiracy to defraud the United States, the district attorney's office said. 

Adam Ball, 48, of Saginaw, and Brian Bartlett, 48, of Standish, were sentenced Thursday to one year and one day in federal prison after their guilty pleas to conspiracy to defraud the United States.   

Anthony Thelen, 48, of Pewamo, was sentenced Thursday to 6 months in federal prison after his guilty plea to conspiracy to defraud the United States.   

The men were ordered to pay a total of $4,571,800 in restitution to the Michigan Department of Transportation, along with forfeitures totaling $4,073,200, the district attorney's office said. 

"For nearly a decade, the defendants carried out a scheme that compromised the integrity of transportation projects in Michigan and betrayed the taxpayers who funded them," said Anthony Licari, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, Midwestern Region. 

The district attorney's office said that from February 2011 to July 2019, the five men were involved in a fraudulent overbilling scheme to the Michigan Department of Transportation that included false and non-existent employee and technology costs, in addition to inflated equipment and property lease expenses. 

The contracts were paid for almost entirely by federal funds through the U.S. Department of Transportation.  

As part of a non-prosecution agreement, Surveying Solutions Inc. participated in a compliance program and paid a $1.1 million penalty. The district attorney's office has noted that the company cooperated with federal agencies during the investigation.  

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Transportation investigated the case. 

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