Balfour Beatty Communities LLC, one of the largest private residential managers for the U.S. military, has pleaded guilty to defrauding the three service branches in a scheme to obtain performance bonuses by misrepresenting maintenance records, the U.S. Justice Dept. said in announcing an agreement in which the firm will pay $65.4 million to settle a federal criminal probe and civil lawsuits by military families.

The firm is a subsidiary of Balfour Beatty plc, the large UK-based global contractor. That firm reported about $9.7 billion in 2020 revenue. It is not ranked on ENR's Top Global Contractors list, but its U.S. construction arm ranks at No. 16 on ENR’s2021 Top 400 Contractorslist, reporting $5.08 billion in revenue for that year.

The Malvern, Pa.-based subsidiary pleaded guilty to one count of fraud, the Justice Dept. said last month.

Under terms of the settlement ordered by a U.S. District Court judge, the company will pay the government $33.6 million in criminal fines and $31.8 million in restitution. It will also serve three years of probation, work with an independent compliance monitor and implement a compliance and ethics program.

Major Landlord

Balfour Beatty Communities operated privatized military residences at 16 Army, 21 Air Force and 18 Navy bases across the U.S.,that houses tens of thousands of service members and families, court documents state. The company was paid for design, construction, management and maintenance of each housing community, and was also eligible for performance incentive fees that depended on service branch approval and documentation of objectives such as maintenance and resident satisfaction.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement, however, that the company lied about promptly making repairs to the housing. Court records state that between 2013 and 2019, employees falsified incentive fee requests to show the company had met performance objectives when, in reality, it had failed to meet them in many cases.

法庭文件显示，公司员工销毁并伪造的居民评论卡并更改了物业管理软件中的数据，以使其指标作为该计划的一部分膨胀，租户面临长期，不必要的维护问题的延误。

“This pervasive fraud was a consequence of [Balfour Beatty Communities’] broken corporate culture, which valued profit over the welfare of service members,” Monaco said.

Two former company employees previously pleaded guilty to related charges. Stacy Cabrera, a former community manager, pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and Rick Cunefare, a former regional manager, pleaded guilty in June to major fraud against the U.S.

不other executives or employees were charged.

Balfour Beatty plc says it did its own investigation of the unit's operations and made changes to prevent a similar type of misconduct from happening again, including restructuring its management team and appointing a chief compliance officer.

“Balfour Beatty is committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct,” the company said in a statement. “The wrongdoing that took place is completely contrary to the way the company expects its people to behave. The company apologizes for the actions of [the unit] to all its stakeholders.”

The probe developed froma report by Reutersof the mismanaged repairs, thenews service said.

该母公司将于3月10日发布其2021年年终公司业绩。