Canton-based contractor Barletta Heavy Division Inc. will pay a $500,000 criminal fine and an additional $1 million to resolve a federal investigation into false statements made to government officials in connection with a highway interchange reconstruction project in Providence.
Barletta is majority owner of the joint venture awarded a contract by the Rhode Island government in 2017 to rebuild the Route 6-Route 10 interchange. In the summer of 2020, Barletta trucked in thousands of tons of stone from another of its projects, an MBTA project in Jamaica Plain, without notifying government officials or testing the stone for contamination, according to prosecutors. It continued to bring in the stone for weeks after receiving test results that showed it did not meet the project’s environmental standards, prosecutors said.
Also in the summer of 2020, Barletta misrepresented to the Rhode Island Department of Transportation how much dirt it had trucked into the 6-10 project from another site in Pawtucket, even though it was not permitted to do so, according to prosecutors.
Barletta entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office in Rhode Island in which it accepted responsibility for its employees’ actions. The deal requires the construction firm to put compliance measures in place for three years.
In addition to the $500,000 criminal fine, Barletta struck a $1 million settlement under the False Claims Act related to bringing the dirt to the interchange...
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