While it has settled the case, Hanford Site subcontractor Sage Tec on Friday vigorously denied allegations made in a federal fraud lawsuit.
The company released a statement a week after the Department of Justice said Sage Tec had agreed to pay a $235,000 settlement.
Sage Tec was accused of using its status as a small, disadvantaged company to serve as a front company to win subcontracts valued at about $20 million from former Energy Department cleanup contractor Washington Closure Hanford, with Federal Engineers & Constructors then doing much of the work.
The Sage Tec statement said owner Laura Shikashio had decades of experience on environmental remediation projects, including those involving nuclear waste, when she founded Sage Tec in 2009. She used her experience to help Sage Tec win not just the Washington Closure contracts, but work from Hanford’s Mission Support Alliance and on the Plateau Remediation Contract, according to Sage Tec. Sage Tec and “a strong team of subcontractors” performed the work on the two subcontracts at issue and there were no allegations the work was deficient, according to Sage Tec. The lawsuit had alleged Shikashio was the only employee of Sage Tec and that it owned no equipment.
Sage Tec had a strong position in the lawsuit, but the cost of litigation against the government led to the decision to settle, according to the company statement.
Federal Engineers & Constructors also settled for $2 million, admitting no liability. “While FE&C believes that it complied in all material respects with the applicable regulations, we are glad to put these costly and complicated legal proceedings behind us so we can focus all of our energies on providing the high-quality construction and remediation work that has been our hallmark since the company was founded in 2001,” said Richard French, FE&C’s chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement.
Washington Closure, which previously held the Hanford River Corridor cleanup contract, is still scheduled for trial in the case on Feb. 12, 2018. It has also admitted no wrongdoing.
