Business

‘Bovis’ in butt-head scheme

A construction giant that helped build the Sept. 11 Memorial and Citi Field agreed to pay as much as $56 million yesterday to settle charges it fleeced clients as part of a decades-long billing scheme.

The former head of Lend Lease Construction’s New York office, James Abadie also pleaded guilty for his role in the scam, in which clients, including New York taxpayers, unwittingly padded worker paychecks to the tune of at least $19 million. Abadie, 55, of Cortlandt Manor, NY, was released on $500,000 bail and faces up to 20 years behind bars.

Lend Lease, previously known as Bovis Lend Lease, has been cooperating with the probe since it kicked off in 2009, said Brooklyn US Attorney Loretta Lynch. The company will escape criminal prosecution if it satisfies the terms of the deal, which include restitution to victims.

Between 1999 and 2009, Lend Lease routinely overcharged clients by tacking on one to two hours to every shift as a kind of bonus for its foremen. The company also charged clients for time when workers were on vacation and out sick, Lynch said.

Lend Lease’s scheming raised costs at Citi Field, Grand Central Terminal, the Deutsche Bank building, US District Court in Brooklyn and the US Post Office in Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn.

“They helped to build this city,” Lynch said. “They’re responsible for icons in the New York City landscape.”

Bovis previously forked over $5 million for safety violations following the deadly Deutsche Bank fire, which killed two firemen in 2007.