NEWARK, NJ — Several years ago, the City of Newark hired a company to replace lead pipes as part of its battle against water contamination. Instead, the company left them in the ground – and collected their payment anyway, federal prosecutors say.
Michael Sawyer, 57, of Burlington, the chief executive officer of JAS Group Enterprise Inc., and Latronia Sanders, 55, of Roselle, a foreperson with the company, were arrested on Thursday and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The work in question was part of Newark’s Lead Service Line Replacement (LSLR) program, prosecutors said.
Find out what's happening in Newarkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Five years ago, Newark made national headlines when it confronted a lead water crisis. At one point, the lead levels at some points in the city’s drinking water had risen to 47 parts per billion at some sites, more than three times the federal threshold. It prompted an outcry from residents – and a lawsuit from advocates.
Newark eventually identified two sources of the contamination. One was the way the city treated its water, which allowed excess corrosion to take place in aging pipes. The city responded by rolling out a new method of treating its water, which is also sold to several nearby towns and cities in Essex County.
Find out what's happening in Newarkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The second issue wasn’t as quick of a fix, however.
Newark officials traced some of the contamination to lead-lined service pipes leading to thousands of local homes. The pipes – which connect local homes and businesses to the local water supply – can potentially leach contamination as water passes through them. A portion of the pipes may be privately owned, complicating efforts to replace them.
Despite the challenges and scope of the project, Newark has since replaced more than 20,000 lead service pipes, a massive effort that got a big thumbs up from officials including Vice President Kamala Harris. See Related: Lead Pipes And Newark: Kamala Harris Returns To NJ To Praise City
But earlier this year, a new speedbump emerged.
In February, officials announced that the city is carrying out a new audit of its drinking water infrastructure. The problem? A “third party” provider may not have done the job they were supposed to:
“In January 2024, the City of Newark and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) were advised of concerns that, in some cases, third parties hired to replace lead service lines in Newark may not have complied with all requirements for full line replacement (ex. from the water meter inside a home to the water main in the street). In response, Newark and the NJDEP immediately launched an audit to identify affected properties and commence inspections to verify compliance with lead service line replacement requirements to ensure the continued safety of all residents.”
State officials provided an update on the audit last month:
“Between January 19 and August 5 of this year, the targeted audit resulted in 388 service line excavations. Thirty of the properties that were excavated were found to contain some remaining lead components, which were expeditiously replaced. Between May 21 and August 15 of this year, 313 service lines were excavated from statistically significant sample of 387 addresses selected for the randomized audit. Two addresses were found to contain some remaining lead components and have either been replaced or are being scheduled for replacement soon.”
“Importantly, the NJDEP has confirmed that Newark’s corrosion control treatment has been optimized to protect residents whose water may come in contact with plumbing that may still contain lead components,” officials said.
“Newark has demonstrated compliance with the federal lead and copper rule,” state officials added. “Unless you are contacted by Newark to participate in an inspection of your service line, there is nothing you need to do at this time.”
Click Here: Liverpool soccer tracksuit
THE ALLEGATIONS
Federal prosecutors elaborated on the charges against Sawyer and Sanders in a statement on Thursday.
“In March 2019, Newark announced plans to replace approximately 18,000 lead service lines within city limits as part of its LSLR program,” prosecutors said. “Newark hired an engineering firm to oversee the implementation of the program and contractors to complete the replacement work. JAS Group Enterprise Inc. (JAS) was one of the contractors hired by Newark. Prior to being hired as a contractor, JAS also worked on the LSLR program as a subcontractor for another construction company.”
Sawyer was the president and chief executive officer of JAS and responsible for overseeing and managing JAS’s operations. Sanders was employed by JAS as a foreperson of JAS crews assigned to replace lead pipes in Newark during the LSLR program, prosecutors said.
Here’s what happened, prosecutors alleged:
“As alleged in the complaint, Sawyer, Sanders, and others intentionally failed to replace all lead pipes at certain locations as required under the terms of the relevant contracts, yet caused the submission of payment applications to Newark falsely representing that JAS completed the work in accordance with the contracts. Sawyer, Sanders, and others submitted false or misleading documents to support payment applications with respect to certain work sites. These materials included photographs that visually represented that the lead replacement was done or was unnecessary, but in fact were taken in a way to conceal that lead pipes were left in place.”
Prosecutors continued:
“At other sites where the water service lines already consisted entirely of copper pipes, Sawyer, Sanders, and others conspired to falsely represent that JAS had installed those copper pipes after removing lead pipes. Sawyer, Sanders, and others then caused the submission of fraudulent payment applications for work that JAS never completed, and induced Newark to pay JAS for work that JAS did not perform.”
The charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, twice the gross profits, or twice the gross loss suffered by the victims of the offense, whichever is greatest, prosecutors said.
“Michael Sawyer and Latronia Sanders worked for a company hired by the city of Newark to replace lead pipes, but instead, they intentionally left lead pipes in the ground,” U.S. Attorney Phillip Sellinger said.
“By causing misleading photographs and verification forms to be submitted, Sawyer and Sanders concealed that they intentionally did not replace lead pipes and defrauded Newark by collecting payment for work they did not properly perform,” Sellinger said. “Today, we begin the process of holding them accountable.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office held a news conference to announce the charges on Thursday. Watch the video below, or view it online here.
Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com. Find out how to post announcements or events to your local Patch site.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.