Parkville, Topeka Men Indicted for $346 Million Fraud Scheme
Last edited Fri Jun 28, 2019, 03:16 AM - Edit history (1)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Two men have been indicted by a federal grand jury for a conspiracy in which they fraudulently profited from hundreds of millions of dollars in federal government contracts they were not entitled to receive, which were set aside for small businesses owned and controlled by service-disabled veterans, and minorities.
Patrick Michael Dingle, 48, of Parkville, Missouri, and Matthew L. Torgeson, 46, of Topeka, Kansas, were charged in a 16-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Missouri, on Wednesday, June 26.
The federal indictment alleges that Dingle and Torgeson, along with Matthew C. McPherson, 43, of Olathe, Kan., operated companies with straw owners who qualified as socially and economically disadvantaged individuals or service-disabled veterans, but who did not actually control the companies. Conspirators fraudulently obtained small business program certifications and veteran-owned business certifications, the indictment says, which they used to obtain approximately $346 million in federal contract payments to which they were not entitled. McPherson has been charged and pleaded guilty in a separate, but related, case.
Dingle, Torgeson, and McPherson allegedly used Stephon Ziegler – an African-American service-disabled veteran – as the nominal owner of Zieson Construction Company, headquartered in North Kansas City, Missouri. In reality, the indictment says, Dingle managed and controlled the daily operations of Zieson Construction Company and Dingle, Torgeson, and McPherson controlled the long-term decision making for Zieson Construction Company. They fraudulently obtained approximately 199 set-aside contracts from 2009 through 2018, for which the government paid Zieson Construction Company approximately $335 million. Ziegler has been charged and pleaded guilty in a separate, but related, case.
Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdmo/pr/parkville-topeka-men-indicted-346-million-fraud-scheme