Utah Construction Firms Agree to Settle Whistleblower Lawsuit for $1.2M

Two Utah construction companies have agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle a whistleblower’s lawsuit alleging abuse of a federal program that helps small businesses.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the Salt Lake City-based Big-D Construction Corp. already has paid more than $1 million and the Ogden-based Creative Times Dayschool Inc. will pay $150,000 in the coming months as part of the settlement agreement.

Neither company admits any wrongdoing or liability.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports an ex-worker at Big-D filed a whistleblower suit in federal court in 2011 accusing the firms of violating the rules of the Small Business Administration program.

The suit said Creative Times qualified for the program and was awarded a government contract, but that the majority of the work was done by Big-D, which has ineligible partly because it has more than 1,000 employees.