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Contractor Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Defraud HUD
Buffalo, N.Y.–Walter Heinrich Weiss, 61, a Niagara Falls contractor, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to make a false statement in a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) transaction.
The charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison, a fine of $100,000.00 or both. Weiss, an employee of John Gross at David Gross Contracting, Inc., submitted a false and fraudulent bid for repairs on a resident’s home damaged by a water main break in 2009.
The break, which occurred on March 24, 2009, flooded several streets in the City of Niagara Falls, affecting approximately 750,000 gallons of water. Following the flood, the Niagara Falls Department of Community Development began notifying residents and home owners in the area affected by the flooding of the types of damage for which they may be allowed to receive grant funds to cover the cost of the repairs.
Weiss’s company, David Gross Contracting, Inc., was hired to perform the repairs, and the company was paid $2,545.00 in NFDCD funds. The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provided funds to the NFDCD to cover emergency repairs caused by the water main break.
According to First Assistant U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr., Weiss and his company conspired to submit a false bid for repairs, purporting to be from a competitor. The bid was more expensive than the legitimate bid submitted by Weiss’s company, and was submitted to the NFDCD with the intention of manipulating and defrauding the grant program.
As part of the conspiracy, Weiss’s company maintained blank letterhead for various companies which were its competitors. The defendant knew and agreed that such documents would from time to time be used by employees of David Gross Contracting, Inc., in order to prepare false and fraudulent bids for certain jobs by the company as part of any competitive bidding process.
The plea is the culmination of an investigation on the part of Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division, under the direction of Toni Weirauch, Special Agent-in-Charge.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 23, 2014, at 12:30 p.m. before Judge Richard J. Arcara.
Key Facts
- State: New York
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release ↗
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