Executive pleads guilty to fraud
WEST POTTSGROVE » The former quality control manager at Universal Concrete has pleaded guilty to falsifying test results on concrete used as part of a $5.8 billion expansion of the Washington, D.C., Metro system.
According to an Aug. 3 report in The Washington Post, Andrew Nolan, 28, testified in federal court in Alexandria, Va., that “I falsified data recording for concrete testing for the air quality of the concrete, and I instructed others to do the same.”
According to the newspaper, Nolan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and faces up to five years in prison. He also owes $700,567 in restitution to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which is overseeing the project.”
The Justice Department and the state of Virginia are suing Universal Concrete, located at 400 Old Reading Pike in Stowe,
for falsifying records and delivering pre-cast concrete panels that did not meet project specifications as part of a contract worth $6.1 million to the company.
Nolan, the nephew of Universal Concrete Founder and President Donald Faust, was named in the lawsuit along with Faust.
The rail project at the center of the lawsuit is a 23mile extension of the Metrorail system’s silver line that will extend in two phases to Dulles airport.
Phase one opened in 2014 and phase two is under construction now.
About 1,500 panels manufactured
by Universal Concrete Products are part of six stations in the project.
A 2016 whistleblower lawsuit alleges that “all of the panels could be flawed because the raw materials used to make them did not meet project standards,” according to the newspaper.
The lawsuit was filed under seal on March 29, 2016, by Nathan Davidheiser, who worked for Universal as a lab technician in the quality control division from July 2015 to February of 2016, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that when Davidheiser brought his concerns about incorrect data to Nolan, “Nolan instructed Davidhsier to let the engineers pour — and ultimately put to use in the Dulles project — the nonconforming
batch of concrete regardless of the test results.”
Further, the suit alleges that although Universal indicated in the contract that it would be using stone aggregate in the concrete from a quarry named Eastern Stone in Oley, Berks County, which met the chemical composition required to reduce degradation, Davidheiser discovered the company was using stone from a quarry in Denver, Lancaster County, that did not meet the chemical requirements and that the Oley quarry had closed two years earlier.
Under the whistleblower law, Davidheiser is entitled to a portion of any money recovered in the suit, radio station WTOP reported.