Four men have been indicted on conspiracy to commit wire fraud and substantive counts of wire fraud and major fraud against the United States for their alleged roles in fraudulently obtaining a multi-million dollar construction contract from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Matthew West, 52, of Lantana, Florida, Kevin Kutina 61, of Ramona, California, Roberto Gonzalez, 58, of Palmetto Bay, Florida and William Gonzalez, 51, of Orlando, Florida, were indicted on Oct. 4, according to a Department of Justice release.
VA issued a request for bid proposals for a contract to build the Cancer Infusion Therapy Center at Bay Pines VA Medical Center in Pinellas County, Florida, in July 2016, according to the indictment.
The contract, valued between $5 million and $10 million, was for the construction of a 14,909 square-foot building to augment the Bay Pines VA Medical Center’s existing radiation oncology clinic and enable VA health care providers to treat more veterans diagnosed with various types of cancer in an environment that was accessible and patient-centered.
The CITC contract was set-aside for service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, which required only bids from qualified businesses be considered, according to the DOJ release.
The indictment alleges that the men utilized a company owned and operated by service-disabled veteran Roberto Gonzalez and William Gonzalez, Maxon Groupe, LLC to submit a bid containing false statements and omissions to be awarded the contract.
According to the indictment, they falsely represented qualified employees from Kevcon, Inc., owned and operated by Kutina, would serve in supervisory roles per a teaming agreement between Maxon and Kevcon.
They also failed to disclose to VA contracting officials that Maxon was a pass-through for West’s company, West Construction, Inc., which managed nearly all the work for the CITC contract and received most of the payment for the same.
West Construction, Inc. was not a company eligible for the SDVOSB set-aside contract, the DOJ release states.
“As a result of the false statements and omissions within the bid proposal, the VA awarded the contract to Maxon,” the DOJ release reads.
The indictment further alleges that between March 2017 and January 2019, the men submitted multiple invoices for payment. As a result, the U.S. Treasury paid Maxon approximately $4.8 million. During this same period, $4.2 million of those funds was transferred to West, who transferred approximately $1.1 million to Kevcon, the DOJ release states.
If convicted, the defendants face a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison on each of the conspiracy and wire fraud counts, and a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment on the major fraud against the United States count.
The indictment also puts the defendants on notice that the United States intends to forfeit at least $4,835,035, which represents the proceeds of the criminal conduct.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.