A three-year-long federal investigation of alleged overbilling on reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan by engineer Louis Berger Group appears likely to force Derish M. Wolff, chairman of the firm’s holding company, from his job, according to court documents filed last week.

The company is trying to resolve Wolff’s status as chairman of Berger Group Holdings, it said a statement released on August 16. “We anticipate that the matter of his employment to be resolved by the end of next week,” the company said.

现年75岁的沃尔夫（Wolff）在他的新泽西州的家中联系说，此事仍在“讨论”，他无法进一步发表评论。

If the matter does end his role as chairman of the holding company, it will be a rancorous culmination to Wolff’s nearly half-century-long career at Berger Group and part of a gradual limiting of his role caused by the overbilling investigation. He is a nephew of Louis Berger, the engineer who founded the company.

The U.S. Justice Dept. hasn’t made any formal charge against the Berger Group or Wolff, but the investigation, begun in 2007, has thrown a monkey wrench into the company’s relations with one of its key clients, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and presented a possible financial challenge in the form of obligations to buy back shares from Wolff, who owns 27% of the company stock.

Although the investigation of the Berger Group’s Afghanistan billings involves two other former employees, the Justice Dept. said in court filings that Wolff is the subject of criminal and civil investigations and that USAID insisted—and Berger Group officials agreed—to circumscribe Wolff’s role last year and to arrange for his resignation last month.

U.S. attorney Paul Fishman then sought to have any funds used to buy out Wolff’s stake in the company placed in escrow, apparently because of concern that a buyout of Wolff’s shares would hinder Berger Group’s ability to pay potential fines that could result from the investigation. Although it isn’t clear if Berger Group complied with the escrow request, Wolff filed a lawsuit on Aug. 9 in Newark, N.J., federal district court to prevent the U.S. attorney from interfering with his stock buyout.

A federal judge denied Wolff's initial request to restrain the U.S. attorney on August 11.

Under a 1978 shareholder agreement, Morristown, N.J.-based Berger Group is obligated to purchase all of Wolff’s shares at book value. Wolff says the company must make the first 10% payment within 30 days of his severance.

该公司报告了2009 revenue of $1.09 billion, with $880 million from international work.

According to Wolff’s court filings, the U.S. attorney sought Wolff’s termination as holding company chairman more than a year ago during settlement discussions with the Berger Group.

该文件说，该公司要求沃尔夫于8月13日生效。

沃尔夫（Wolff）的律师在要求法院的救济请求中写道，他的委托人被“立即终止”，路易斯·伯杰集团（Louis Berger Group）同意政府要求将沃尔夫（Wolff）股份放在托管中的要求。

沃尔夫在救济请求中说：“政府无权对公司的就业事项表达任何利益。”该文件说：“政府对公司的不当和非法欺负。”

In his response, Fishman said that, last year, USAID insisted—and his office agreed—that Wolff’s role in the company should be circumscribed. He said the Berger Group and Wolff have more recently “apparently come to realize that his continued presence in its hierarchy is no longer appropriate or productive.”

The request to escrow funds to buy out Wolff’s shares grew out of the government’s “legitimate concerns that a substantial payout to the Plaintiff could compromise the company’s ability to satisfy its obligations under the False Claims Act,” which could involve substantial fines in addition to refunds, Fishman wrote.

Along with transportation design, overseas economic development and reconstruction always had been Berger Group’s specialty, and for a long time the company’s clients have included overseas governments and international development agencies.

The war in Afghanistan marked a rebirth of nation-building, which the George W. Bush Administration had foresworn.

在2002年美国入侵之后,USAID授予Berger Group一份3亿美元的在阿富汗重建合同一直持续到2007年。工作包括管理动力装置，学校，水坝和灌溉系统的设计，建设和维修。也有许多技术，规划和经济研究。根据一项不寻常的合同，伯杰集团监督了旧阿富汗货币的物理破坏，因此可以用新的货币代替。

The most successful part of the program encompassed the dangerous and sometimes deadly reconstruction of Afghanistan’s national Ring Road in the southern half of Afghanistan—the Kabul-to-Kandahar and Kandahar-to-Herat highways.

政府的大型合同奖和一些重建工作的质量和效率...