Firm To Pay For Cheating Army

A company will pay $225,000 to settle claims that false bills were submitted to the Army for food service at Fort Lewis, U.S. Attorney Kate Pflaumer said Friday.

The money is being paid by Professional Services Unlimited, a partner of COBARC Services in a joint venture called Archetype Services, which held a $36 million contract for operating the mess at Fort Lewis from 1988 to 1993.

Under the contract, Archtype was obligated to pay into trust funds for pension, health, vacation and sick leave benefits for workers covered by the Service Employees International Union.

Between May 1991 and May 1993, however, investigators found Archtype concealed the names of temporary workers and failed to make the trust fund payments for them, although the government was billed for those payments, assistant U.S. attorney Harold Malkin said.

Previous reports indicated 850 to 1,000 workers were involved.

Archetype manager Cornelius Hall, 72, was sentenced earlier this year to four months of home confinement and payment of $344,061.91 in restitution plus a $10,000 fine.

A check covering restitution was sent recently to the union by the Labor Department to make up the missing employer contributions to the benefit funds, Malkin said.