Hanford Managers Found Not Guilty in Time Card Fraud Scheme

The jury apparently agreed with defense attorneys, who said just because workers were committing time card fraud, how were managers supposed to know?

Late Thursday, Kenneth Baird, James Hay, Perry Howard, and Mark Johnson were found not guilty by the jury. They worked as field supervisors overseeing specific jobs for former Hanford tank farm contractor CH2M Hill Hanford Group.  The trial had been taking place at the Federal Courthouse in Richland for the last week weeks.

11 Hanford workers plead guilty earlier this year to the time card charges.   One supervisor is among the 11.    To encourage workers to help complete tasks, overtime was offered in 8-hour shifts.   However, these workers who completed tasks earlier would go home, but still put the 8 hours on their time cards.

The federal government reimbursed CH2M Hill for the overtime, but said they would NOT have paid for the time if they'd known jobs were completed earlier and the hours were not actually worked.

The prosecution claimed the four managers were either involved, or ignored signs the fraud was occurring.   However, defense attorneys said the jury should be wary of testimony given by workers who already plead guilty.

These lawyers said the many of the workers were trying to get more lenient sentences in exchange for giving up whatever information they had about the scheme.  The attorneys implied the workers were under pressure to give testimony against the managers.

Just because the workers were committing the time card fraud,  that didn't mean the managers were aware.  They were not always at the specific job locations, and could not verify if the workers put in the 8 hours.  The jury agreed with the defense that there was insufficient evidence to find the managers guilty.

According to numerous sources,  there were reports of widespread timecard fraud across the Hanford Reservation, and CH2M Hill paid over $18 million dollars in 2013 to settle both civil and criminal charges, involving defrauding taxpayers with the time card scheme at Hanford.