Copyright Weeklys All rights reserved. Dawn Sweatt, an attorney for Bay Area Concrete, said her clients vehemently deny the allegations by PG&E. Neighbors complained about dust blowing off a massive pile of crushed concrete. PG&E did not say how much the utility believes it was overcharged by Bay Area Concrete as it continues to investigate. Bay Area Concrete opened a dump in Paradise to take the waste from the cleanup. Public File for KBCW-TV / KBCW 44 Cable 12. This article was produced in partnership with the Bay City News Foundation, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. But that same day, a spark ignited brush in the remote foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Northern California. Bay Area Concrete overcharged for travel time while hauling and billed PG&E for work that was never done or was unnecessary. LIVE-Wedding Ceremony || Yadwinder Singh & Karandeep Kaur || Deva Studio Ding Road Sirsa 94163-56150 KTVU's Azenith Smith reports. On March 15, 2016, Lucero was indicted for violations of the federal Clean Water Act. At the time, PG&E owed Bay Area Concrete nearly $4 million, according to bankruptcy filings. "I've spoken to [Bauters] several times, we have a very different opinion about what is appropriate discharge onto the street and what is not," Wilfong said at a Hayward Planning Commission meeting in 2018. Yadwinder Singh Project Technician at F12.net Calgary, Alberta, Canada 235 followers 233 connections Join to view profile F12.net Seneca College About Customer service focused System. Singh did not respond to requests for comment. So you need to do more. The same month, San Jose code enforcement officials cited the company for operating a recycling transfer facility without permits. The company appealed in hopes of winning a permit to operate. In 2014, the company was connected to an illegal dumping operation on federally protected wetlands in Newark. Singh and Johal wanted to negotiate an exclusive contract to dump on the property. Bay Area Concrete stuck around and opened a new dump on PG&E property in Petaluma. During public comment, Gerald Carroll, an attorney for another neighbor, D.W. Nicholson, pleaded with the commission to deny the appeal, citing concerns about the health of their employees from dust. Records show that Kooistra owned another company, CCI Management LLC, which was founded in June 2019. PG&E first started disposing of waste in the companys Hayward yard in 2016, and the business expanded to include the cleanup of PG&E yards throughout Northern California. On June 16, PG&E CEO and President William Johnson pleaded guilty on behalf of the company to 84 counts of felony manslaughter and one count of failing to maintain the lines that caused the fire near Paradise, known as the Camp Fire. 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The company is owned and managed by the husband-wife team Yadwinder "Kevin" Singh and Preet Johal, according to local and state documents. According to PG&Es complaint, CCI did hauling work for Bay Area Concrete, which would submit invoices directly to PG&E. In 2019, they leased land on Treasure Island in the San . The company, Packal said, had a truck to haul water from site to site. First published on February 26, 2021 / 9:44 AM. A small white sign on the fence reads "Slurry Waste Solutions" in orange. Trucks began dumping potentially toxic slurry at the disposal site, which did not require environmental review as an emergency project and helped speed cleanup operations. "Everything was focused on the core competency of what we do.". Now, an investigation by the Bay City News Foundation and ProPublica has revealed for the first time a multimillion-dollar real estate transaction linking one of Bay Area Concrete's owners,. In exchange, the lawsuit alleges, a company linked to Johal and Singh repaved Huggins driveway while they were supposed to be working on a PG&E job. In response to a long list of questions, PG&E provided a brief statement that did not directly address how warning signs like the company owners long conflict with the city of Hayward and participation in an illegal dumping operation were overlooked. In addition to his work with Bay Area Concrete, Bauters did training for the California Stormwater Quality Association. T.J. Simmons, then-senior vice president of ConXtech, a neighboring business, wrote a letter to the city in 2018 to complain. Copyright Weeklys All rights reserved. In late 2019, PG&E learned of the alleged fraud and launched an investigation. The firm was tied to illegal dumping on federally. / CBS San Francisco, by Scott Morris, Bay City News Foundation. Kooistra resigned and his supervisor, superintendent of gas transmission and distribution Ron Huggins, also no longer works at PG&E, according to the news organizations' investigation. PG&E alleges that in exchange for these kickbacks, the employees provided lucrative clean-up jobs to Hayward-based Bay Area Concrete Recycling. Bay Area Concrete overcharged for travel time while hauling and billed PG&E for work that was never done or was unnecessary. There are 800+ professionals named "Yadwinder Singh", who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. Kooistra resigned and his supervisor, superintendent of gas transmission and distribution Ron Huggins, also no longer works at PG&E, according to the news organizations investigation. One supervisor for PG&E allegedly had his driveway paved on the power company's dime. Corporate records unearthed by the news organizations reveal new details about the alleged schemes. Please enter valid email address to continue. He argued that there were legitimate differences in opinion over what zoning allowed for the site in Hayward. It paid a low hourly rate, but it was a steady contract that soon expanded to include sweeping PG&E sites from Sacramento to Monterey and east into the Central Valley. The full investigation is available at ProPublica.org. In October, the Washington Department of Ecology ordered the company to keep its site clean and halt discharge of wastewater to storm drains. Ownership of that new company was later transferred to a PG&E employee who oversaw Bay Area Concretes work in Paradise. PG&E alleges that Huggins was aware of Kooistas actions and did not disclose them. Originally from Belgium, he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at KU Leuven in his home country and then a doctorate in soil and water engineering from Cornell University in 1999. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. City staff denied the application. It is unfortunate that you decided to terminate our contract without first consulting us or making sure that your purported grounds had merit, he wrote. "The litigation process will make this clear in time.". PG&E's filing is in response to a breach of contract lawsuit filed against the utility in October by Bay Area Concrete. Bay Area Concrete appealed. Dawn Sweatt, an attorney for Bay Area Concrete, said her clients "vehemently deny" the allegations by PG&E. Clearly what you are doing now is not working. Bay Area Concrete is part of a sprawling network of hauling, recycling and construction companies owned by Bay Area couple Preet Johal and Yadwinder Kevin Singh. PG&E asked Kooistra to turn over his company-issued phone, which he did, but he refused to provide his passcode so investigators could access text messages and other data. Four days later, he retired. Kooistra was interviewed in January 2020 by PG&E investigators, who confronted him with evidence of his interest in companies connected to Bay Area Concrete. A city water pollution expert warned the runoff could be contaminating San Francisco Bay. But at a city Planning Commission meeting in November 2018, commissioners were unmoved. In February 2020, PG&E canceled Bay Area Concretes contracts and publicly announced its belief that the waste company had committed fraud. View the profiles of professionals named "Yadwinder Singh" on LinkedIn. PG&E paid CCI $150,000 over five weeks without knowing that the company was owned by Kooistra, a violation of PG&E employment and supplier policies. Please subscribe to keep reading. PG&E alleges that Huggins approved false invoices and concealed fraudulent charges throughout PG&Es contract with Bay Area Concrete. As a result, the value of Bay Area Concrete's contracts with PG&E increased "exponentially" over a period of four years, the lawsuit said. The allegations track closely with the results of an investigation last year by ProPublica and the Bay City News Foundation, which found that PG&E had overlooked numerous warning signs when it hired Bay Area Concrete. A subordinate is accused of having received a bribe in an unorthodox property transfer of a multimillion-dollar house in a wealthy suburb of San Francisco. Huggins retired, and Kooistra sold his home and moved out of state after being confronted by PG&E investigators, the counterclaim by PG&E said. PG&E bankruptcy filings from March 2019 showed that the utility owed Bay Area Concrete nearly $4 million. Journalist Camille Von Kaenel explains on The Four. The sprawling complex includes parking for utility trucks, a repair station, outdoor storage for large spools of wires, pipes and other equipment, and a compressed natural gas vehicle fueling station. Kooistra did not respond to attempts to contact him by phone, mail or social media. On March 3, PG&E sent a second internal memo clarifying that it had also ended its business relationships with Johal and Singh's other companies, including Bay Area Hydrovac, Economy Trucking, PMK Contractors and Slurry Waste Solutions. PG&E asked Kooistra to turn over his company-issued phone, which he did, but he refused to provide his passcode so investigators could access text messages and other data. Singh and Johal negotiated use of the site through Olivero, whom they would later hire to run their flagship company. In exchange, the lawsuit alleges, a company linked to Johal and Singh repaved Huggins' driveway while they were supposed to be working on a PG&E job. "It was definitely a battle with the city the whole time," Packal said. The litigation process will make this clear in time.. During the 2018 trial, he testified that Lucero had hired him in June 2014 to run the site. Those who have met the pair describe them as smart and friendly. The company has had its headquarters in Hayward since 2012, where it operated an unpermitted concrete recycling plant from 2013 until it was shut down last year after years of fighting with the city. In business meetings, Singh tends to take the reins, while Johal listens quietly, occasionally asking a question. The accused PG&E employees, Ronald Huggins Jr. and Ryan Kooistra, did not respond to requests for comment. As a result, the value of Bay Area Concretes contracts with PG&E increased exponentially over a period of four years, the lawsuit said. Operating under the name Slurry Waste Solutions, the company profited handsomely. Very good beside manners. PG&Es counterclaim, filed earlier this month, names Bay Area Concrete, both former PG&E employees, Singh, Johal, several of their other companies and Bay Area Concrete CEO Kevin Olivero as defendants. The unanimous vote to deny the permits was a potentially devastating blow to Bay Area Concrete. In a statement, PG&E spokesperson James Noonan called the alleged actions of Bay Area Concrete "completely unacceptable.". That business grew substantially in November 2018, when a PG&E transmission line sparked a wildfire in Butte County that destroyed more than 18,000 structures and killed 85 people. Over the next year, crews working for the state Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery removed nearly 3.7 million tons of debris, including 673,244 tons of contaminated soil. In 16 years, the pair's business empire has grown from a single trucking firm to more than a dozen companies operating in 11 cities throughout the West Coast. He said some facilities had been incorrectly ordered shut down. "This is in addition to avoiding the significant negative environmental impacts that trucking and processing these materials elsewhere in the state would have caused," he wrote. But Lucero wasn't interested. Internal Medicine (18) 1 Award . PG&E asked Kooistra to turn over his company-issued phone, which he did, but he refused to provide his passcode so investigators could access text messages and other data. Heres how the scheme worked, according to PG&Es allegations in court filings. 21 talking about this. I don't know what they're going to do. As we have stated previously, PG&E will continue to hold ourselves and those that do work on our behalf to the highest ethical standards.. Bay Area Concrete has said that PG&Es accusations of fraud are false and the bankrupt utility was just trying to get out of paying its bills. The Bay City News Foundation and ProPublica first reported the exchange, which one expert described as possible money laundering. The blaze burned for weeks, destroyed 18,804 structures and killed 85 people. In 16 years, the pair's. He sold his home in Rocklin and moved to Arizona. Adding water to dirt makes it illegal to take to ordinary landfills, since dumping it can allow common pollutants like lead or hydrocarbons ?to seep into groundwater. PG&E operates a service center across the street from Bay Area Concrete's main facility in Hayward. Bay Area Concrete has denied the allegations of fraud and bribery in Paradise. Hydro excavation trucks use pressurized water to dig around delicate equipment and avoid accidentally rupturing a gas pipeline or destroying buried wires. In February, PG&E CEO William Johnson publicly accused Hayward-based Bay Area Concrete Recycling of defrauding the utility and bribing PG&E employees. In exchange, the lawsuit alleges, a company linked to Johal and Singh repaved Huggins driveway while they were supposed to be working on a PG&E job. In 16 years, the pair's. He currently plays for Haryana Gold of India's UBA Pro Basketball League. PG&E dumped truckloads of slurry waste as they began digging up damaged gas lines. Yadwinder Singh Brar , who is the top worker in his industry, presently lives in a luxurious area in Chandigarh and drives a Audi alongside four other luxury cars and bikes, all purchased with his . The company is owned and managed by the husband-wife team Yadwinder "Kevin" Singh and Preet Johal, according to local and state documents. After the site was shut down, Singh and Johal hired Olivero to be the CEO of Bay Area Concrete. Ownership of that new company was later transferred to a PG&E employee who oversaw Bay Area Concrete's work in Paradise. Huggins retired, and Kooistra sold his home and moved out of state after being confronted by PG&E investigators, the counterclaim by PG&E said. Here's how the scheme worked, according to PG&E's allegations in court filings. PG&E also hired another company owned by Singh and Johal, PMK Contractors, to help build its command center for the fire, according to Packal. A mural painted by Shane Grammar is seen on a chimney that remains at a property burned by the Camp fire in Paradise, California on February 01, 2019. "We will pursue every available action to remedy the situation and do right by those that we have the privilege to serve," Noonan said. "We have confronted the two PG&E employees supervising BAC with the evidence that they received large sums of money and gifts from the vendor; those employees are no longer with the company," Johnson wrote. PG&E alleges that Huggins was aware of Kooista's actions and did not disclose them. Meanwhile, competing companies lost work with PG&E. 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