Puerto Rico disaster contractor pocketed millions in taxpayer cash, Feds say
The owners of the Textile Corporation of America promised the government that they could deliver 1,000 new jobs to residents of Pikeville, Tennessee, and millions of dollars of supplies to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. And federal and state leaders lined up to support them, helping them secure millions of dollars in contracts and grants.
The Sadruddin brothers, and the family members allegedly party to the scheme, did not respond to requests for comment on the investigation. Nor did Troy King, the former attorney general of Alabama and TCA’s chief counsel. In October 2017, TCA submitted its first tranche of paperwork for reimbursement: a $1.4 million invoice for work performed by Cagle on the site and records of a wire transfer from TCA’s bank account to Cagle’s. “
The FBI checked bank records as well and concluded that “the wire transfer record submitted by Karim Sadruddin to obtain a reimbursement… is, in fact, fraudulent.” In June, the Sadruddins officially certified that the Pikeville plant had been up and running for months. They secured the $230,000 in TVA grant money as a result.
To allay FEMA’s concerns, MGUSA provided copies of purchase orders and wire transfers designed to show that the tarps were purchased from a company in Taiwan and simply shipped through China to minimize transit costs. Those documents, the FBI alleges, were also fraudulent.
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