The U.S. Justice Department said it resolved probes into Balfour Beatty Communities, one of the U.S. military’s largest private landlords, after it pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of major fraud and agreed to pay over $65 million in fines and restitution.
Balfour Beatty was being investigated for defrauding the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy. A company spokesperson said on Thursday: “We have taken full responsibility and apologize to all our stakeholders.”
The company is a unit of British infrastructure conglomerate Balfour Beatty Plc.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan accepted the company’s guilty plea on Wednesday and sentenced it to pay over $65 million, serve three years of probation, and engage an independent compliance monitor for a period of three years.
“Instead of promptly repairing housing for U.S. service members as required, Balfour Beatty Communities lied about the repairs to pocket millions of dollars in performance bonuses,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.
“This pervasive fraud was a consequence of Balfour Beatty Communities’ broken corporate culture.”
Stacy Cabrera, a former housing manager at Texas’s Lackland Air Force Base who told Reuters she felt pressure to manipulate records to meet the bonus goals, pleaded guilty to major fraud in April. Rick Cunefare, a former Balfour Beatty regional manager who oversaw bases in Oklahoma, Texas, and other states, pleaded guilty earlier this year to major fraud.