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Parkville, Missouri man Patrick Michael Dingle, 50, and was charged and plead guilty in September 2021 to $335 Million to conspiracy of government contract fraud and $615k is restitution for filing false tax returns.
Dingle fraudulently conspired to secured government contracts for minority and disabled veterans in the amount of $335M with co-conspirator Mathew McPherson. Dingle was the operations manager for Zieson Construction Company located in North Kansas City, Mo. Dingle and his co-conspirators controlled and operated Zieson, which was originally formed in 2009 with Stephon Ziegler, 61, of Weatherby Lake – an African-American service-disabled veteran. Ziegler did not control the day-to-day operations or the long-term decision making of Zieson. Ziegler signed Zieson checks when requested to do so, signed bids for government jobs when requested to do so and served as a courier of checks and invoices when requested to do so. Between 2009 and 2018 Dingle and McPherson secured over 199 government contracts set aside for minorities and disabled veterans. Of the $335M in contracts secured Zieson construction company, Dingle and McPherson reeived $15M in profit. Dingle, McPherson, and others submitted false and fraudulent Past Performance Questionnaires in support of Zieson bids for set aside contracts. Dingle also admitted that he filed false tax returns over a four-year period from 2013 to 2016, which resulted in a total loss to the government of $615,847.
Ziegler was sentenced on May 12, 2022, to 12 months in federal prison without parole after pleading guilty to making a false statement to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
McPherson was sentenced on Jan. 5, 2022, to two years and four months in federal prison without parole after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and major program fraud. He was ordered to forfeit to the government $5,516,786, which represents his share of the fraud proceeds.
#taxfraud #taxtea #construction #governmentcontract #governmentcontract #veteran #disabledveteran #minority
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