Dive Brief:

• Robert E. Crawford, president and CEO of R.E. Crawford Construction Inc. in Springdale, Pa., is to be sentenced in Pittsburgh Dec. 13 for mail fraud in a scheme in which prosecutors charged he over-billed for work on two malls and paid kickbacks in return for being selected for the work.
• In March, District Judge David Cercone will sentence Mark M. Palombaro, who prosecutors charged was the developer's officer on the other end of the scheme and who pleaded guilty last month to taking kickbacks of $766,000.
• The scheme involved Simon Property Group's Northgate Mall in Seattle and its Laguna Hills Mall in Laguna Hills, Calif.

Dive Insight:

The kickback scheme fell apart when Simon Property took a look at details of billing for the Laguna Hills project because of the costs it was being charged then took what it found to officials. As prosecutors explained the plan, Crawford submitted unusually high cost-of-work charges and then paid money to a shell company of which Palombaro was president. The plan also involved Crawford having an employee fabricate documentation for $1 million in costs. The men repaid $3.3 million to settle a civil suit by Simon Property.