Big builder to pay $1.1M in false claims case

A Rhode Island firm that bought regional construction giant W.G. Mills in 2010 agreed to pay $1.1 million over accusations Mills created a front company in order to win federal government work.

Despite the payment, the former CEO of W.G. Mills, Lem Sharp, denies any wrongdoing in the case, and says it was motivated by “greedy whistleblowers,” not anything he or his firm did. “This was a settlement decision to be able to move on,” Sharp tells the Business Observer in an interview.

Providence-based Gilbane Building Co. will pay the money to resolve the allegations in the federal false claims case, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's office in Tampa. Gilbane bought Mills, which had $275 million in 2009 revenues, in November 2010. Sarasota businessman Walter Mills founded W.G. Mills in 1972, and at one point in the mid-2000s it had offices in Fort Myers, Clearwater, Jacksonville, Palm Beach and Orlando. Gilbane Building Co. is a subsidiary of Gilbane Inc., which had $4.1 billion in revenues in 2013 and is one of the largest real estate developers in the country.