Pleads guilty in $ 3.35 million scheme

A A Parkville man who has been indicted in two federal cases pleaded guilty this week in federal court for his role in a $ 335 million scheme to defraud federal programs that award contracts to minority-owned businesses, veterans and disabled veterans, and in a separate case to the filing of false income tax returns that cheated the government over more than $ 615,000 in taxes owed.

Patrick Michael Dingle, 50, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Roseann Ketchmark to the charges in the two federal cases. Dingle pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit major wire and program fraud. Dingle also pleaded guilty, in a separate case, to one count of filing a false income tax return.

$ 335 million fraud conspiracy

Pleading guilty, Dingle admitted he conspired with Matthew C. McPherson, 45, from Olathe, Kan., To fraudulently secure contracts set aside by the federal government for the award of small businesses owned and controlled by veterans, disabled and certified veterans. minorities.

Dingle was the director of operations for Zieson Construction Company located in North Kansas City. Dingle and his co-conspirators controlled and operated Zieson, which was originally formed in 2009 with Stephon Ziegler – an African-American veteran disabled by service – as the nominal owner. Zieson’s main business was securing federal construction contracts for small businesses owned and controlled by disabled veterans or certified minorities. However, Ziegler did not control Zieson’s day-to-day operations or long-term decision-making. Dingle and his co-conspirators actually controlled and exploited Zieson and received most of Zieson’s profits.

Ziegler signed Zieson checks when asked to do so, signed offers for government jobs when asked to do so, and served as the courier of checks and invoices when asked to do it. Ziegler has not been involved in any way in the management and control of day-to-day operations or long-term decision-making for Zieson.

Dingle and McPherson were not eligible for these layoff contracts because they were not certified minorities or veterans. Although Zieson was not eligible, the company received approximately 199 federal contracts to be awarded to minority-owned small businesses and veteran-owned small businesses between 2009 and 2018. The government paid Zieson approximately $ 335 million for these contracts. Several of the reserved contracts awarded to Zieson were valued at over $ 1 million, including a contract in Topeka, Kan., Awarded on July 13, 2012, valued at approximately $ 4,125,800.

Dingle, McPherson and others have submitted false and fraudulent past performance questionnaires in support of Zieson’s bids for the reserved contracts.

McPherson pleaded guilty on June 3, 2019 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and major program fraud and is awaiting conviction.

False income tax returns

Dingle also pleaded guilty, in a separate case, to filing a false tax return. Dingle admitted that he claimed $ 799,425 in fraudulent business expenses on his 2016 tax return. Due to the false and fraudulent expenses offset in Dingle’s 2016 tax return, the government suffered a loss of ‘approximately $ 349,784.

Dingle also admitted to filing false tax returns over a four-year period, from 2013 to 2016, which resulted in a total loss to the government of $ 615,847. Under his plea agreement, Dingle is required to pay the government restitution equal to the full amount of the federal tax loss as determined by the court at sentencing.

Under federal law, Dingle is liable to a sentence of up to eight years in federal prison without parole. The maximum legal sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for information, as the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court based on the Sentencing Advisory Guidelines and other statutory factors.

A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of an investigation into the submission by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being pursued by Assistant United States Attorney Paul S. Becker. He was investigated by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of the Inspector General; the Department of Defense Criminal Investigation Service; United States General Service Administration, Office of the Inspector General; United States Small Business Administration, Office of the Inspector General; the command of the criminal investigations of the army, the unit of the major frauds in the public markets; the Ministry of Agriculture, Office of the Inspector General; IRS-Criminal Investigation; the American secret services; the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, procurement fraud; the naval criminal investigation service; Defense Contracts Audit Agency – Support for Operations Investigations (OIS); the US Department of Labor, Office of the Inspector General; and the Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA).