3 plead to fraud in post-9/11 repairs

A former contractor pleaded guilty Wednesday to participating in a scheme to defraud the federal government in the reconstruction of the Pentagon after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Prosecutors said Thomas J. Cousar, 54, and two of his employees at Capco Contracting of McKeesport, near Pittsburgh, helped overcharge the government $850,000 for reconstruction work at the Pentagon.

The false bills padded labor hours and cost of materials used at the Pentagon, when some of the labor and materials were actually used on a business Cousar and Bradica owned, prosecutors said.

False records and invoices were submitted to Maryland-based AMEC Construction Management Inc., the prime contractor on the Pentagon project, prosecutors said.

Capco billed AMEC $13.9 million for its work on the Pentagon between September 2001 and May 2002, prosecutors said. The AMEC project manager, Joseph Arena Jr. of Gaithersburg, Md., pleaded guilty in October 2006 to conspiracy for accepting a kickback from Capco.

Cousar, of Alexandria, Va., had been scheduled to stand trial Wednesday. Instead, he pleaded guilty to mail fraud, major fraud and conspiracy.

Catherine L. Bradica, 55, of Alexandria, and Daniel Monte, 63, of Clifton, Va., pleaded guilty Tuesday for their roles. Bradica pleaded guilty to conspiracy, major fraud and mail fraud. Monte, who pleaded guilty to major fraud, told a judge he falsified records at Cousar's behest.

Bradica was in charge of the Capco office, while Monte supervised work Capco did at the Pentagon, federal prosecutors said.

In a separate scheme, Cousar and Bradica also pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the government in the collection of payroll taxes, prosecutors said. Cousar and Bradica arranged for overtime pay for some employees to be issued without withholding $29,700 in income, Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Cousar, Bradica and Monte are to be sentenced July 25.