World Trade Center contractor found guilty of minority-owned business fraud
By Peter Fabris, Contributing Editor
A Manhattan federal jury found a Canadian contractor guilty of defrauding a program to promote minority- and woman-owned businesses in the construction of the World Trade Center.
Prosecutors alleged that DCM Erectors and its owner Larry Davis used two minority firms as administrative fronts while DCM, in an attempt to avoid paying millions of dollars to minority firms, did all the work itself. The value of the steel work at the Freedom Tower and World Trade Center Transportation Hub projects was nearly $1 billion.
Lawyers for the company and Davis said they will appeal the verdict and that the minority firms did the work they were supposed to do on the projects. Prosecutors alleged that Davis falsified records to make it appear that minority contractors performed the work.