Jury Finds that He Made False Statements on Payroll Certifications
The United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, Stephen R. Wigginton, announced today that after four days of trial in East St. Louis, Illinois, a federal jury returned guilty verdicts on each of ten felony counts charging the making of a false statement against William Patrick “Pat" Clark, 40, of Worden, IL. Clark is the owner, operator, and president of Clark Trucking and Excavation, LLC, which was located at 912 Market Street in East St. Louis, Illinois. Clark faces up to five years in prison on each of the ten false statement counts, a fine of up to $250,000 on each, and a total of 3 years of supervised release after imprisonment. Clark will be sentenced on Jan. 24, 2014.
Evidence at trial showed that Clark unlawfully profited from a scheme where he submitted false paperwork claiming to have paid required prevailing wages to his employees on the federally-funded I-64 Highway project. Clark cheated his employees by paying only about $15 per hour, rather than the required $35.45 per hour (without approved fringe benefits) for truck drivers on the project. Nine of his drivers testified at trial. Clark also signed a sworn affidavit falsely claiming satisfaction of labor laws pertaining to the payment of wages to workers in connection with the I-64 project. Clark Trucking had collected about $1.6 million for its hauling work.
The charges in this case followed a lengthy investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General-Office of LaborRacketeering and Fraud Investigation.
Trial in this matter was handled by Assistant United States Attorney Michael J. Quinley and Special Assistant United States Attorney Stuart Zander.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
