Prosecutors allege two contractors knowingly left lead pipes underground and lied about it while raking in millions in government funds. (Getty Images)
Two officials with a construction company that was hired to replace lead pipes in Newark misled city officials and intentionally left lead pipes that transported drinking water into Newark homes, federal prosecutors alleged Thursday.
Prosecutors claim that in 2021 JAS Group Enterprise’s CEO and a foreperson knowingly left lead pipes underground and lied about it while raking in $10.2 million in government funds.
Michael Sawyer of Burlington County and Latronia “Tee” Sanders of Roselle Park were each arrested Thursday and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to prosecutors. Sawyer is the CEO of JAS, one of several construction companies contracted for the massive pipe replacement project. Sanders was a foreman on the Newark project who, according to a federal investigator , ordered workers to cover up lead pipes while submitting false documentation of the company’s work.
“By causing misleading photographs and verification forms to be submitted, Sawyer and Sanders concealed that they intentionally did not replace lead pipes and defrauded Newark by collecting payment for work they did not properly perform. Today, we begin the process of holding them accountable,” U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger said in a statement .
City officials at a Thursday press conference said residents are not at risk of lead exposure thanks to anti-corrosive agents in the water supply that prevent the metal from leaching into drinking water.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said that although traces of lead were detected in some water pipes earlier this year, recent readings found zero parts of lead per billion in the city’s water.
“It’s horrible that people would deliberately and intentionally try to cut corners and get paid for work they did not do,” Baraka said. “There’s less lead in Newark’s water than it is in the water that you buy out of the grocery store.”
Newark made national headlines after testing between 2016 and 2019 showed high levels of lead in its water. Federal and state environmental protection officials found Newark had some of the highest lead levels of any major city in the country at the time.
Pipe replacement began in 2019 and was believed to be largely complete by fall of 2021.
But in February, city officials announced that they discovered some lead pipes had not been replaced despite years of cleanup efforts. Those efforts had been delegated in part to JAS.
The criminal complaint alleges that Sawyer and Sanders, along with other unnamed co-conspirators, submitted official filings that misrepresented their work — including claims that they’d replaced lead pipes that were left in the ground. They also claimed to have removed lead pipes in areas where pipes had already been replaced by others, prosecutors say.
“We allege the subjects in this investigation knew they were not replacing the lead pipes, and then passed off misleading photos to conceal the ones they left in the ground,” Nelson I. Delgado, an acting special agent of the FBI, said in a statement.
At least five unnamed witnesses told investigators that Sanders personally ordered workers not to replace lead pipes, prosecutors allege. Witnesses also claimed they had been ordered to dig into asphalt to create the appearance of pipe replacements that never happened, while Sanders submitted misleading photos of projects to request payment from the city, according to prosecutors.
Newark began checking sites that JAS supervised earlier this year, finding “roughly 28” sites in the city’s southern and western neighborhoods that still had lead pipes. Pipes at those locations have since been replaced, but it’s unclear how many more lead pipes remain.
At Thursday’s press conference, Kareem Adeem, the director of the city’s Department of Water and Sewer Utilities, said that through physical inspection and by analyzing previous documentation, the city checked all sites managed by JAS for remaining lead.
It’s unclear exactly what parts of the city JAS was charged with overseeing, but investigators said the company managed more than a thousand addresses across the city.
The Environmental Protection Agency says there is no safe level of lead contamination in drinking water — any exposure to lead can be detrimental, especially for children.
Lawyers for Sawyer and Sanders did not respond to a request for comment.
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