The litigation process will make this clear in time.. Attempts to reach the couple through their attorney, phone calls, social media and mail were unsuccessful. One supervisor for PG&E allegedly had his driveway paved on the power company's dime. Singh and Johal met Olivero for lunch along with his boss, Jim Lucero, at a high-end restaurant in Oakland. He provided photos showing that the concrete stockpile had grown so large it leaned against the fence between the two properties, bulging over the boundary. He currently plays for Haryana Gold of India's UBA Pro Basketball League. Heres how the scheme worked, according to PG&Es allegations in court filings. Utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric accused two of its former employees of accepting bribes to funnel business to a waste-hauling company after the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California history. Huggins did not respond to written questions mailed to his home in Auburn. Their extensive network of businesses has funded an upscale lifestyle: In 2014, they purchased an 8,500-square-foot home on a wooded ridge outside of Pleasanton for $3.6 million. New York, United States. Meanwhile, competing companies lost work with PG&E. "These guys have been a problem." A jury convicted Lucero, and he was sentenced to 30 months in prison. PG&E first started disposing of waste in the company's Hayward yard in 2016, and the business expanded to include the cleanup of PG&E yards throughout Northern California. Olivero wrote that PG&E owed the company more than $14 million. February 26, 2021 / 9:44 AM Oct 2021 - Dec 20213 months. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Despite that, PG&E then contracted with Bay Area Concrete to play a key role in the cleanup after the Camp Fire. By then, Singh and Johal's Hayward site included the slurry disposal operation, the hauling business and the unpermitted concrete recycling business. The full investigation is available at ProPublica.org. Hayward levied nearly $60,000 in fines over that period. 1 Sabrina Hamipi 1 Inderbir Kaur 1 Inderbir Kour Excel Known Addresses for Yadwinder Singh 24701 Clawiter Rd Hayward, CA 94545 255 Happy Valley Rd Pleasanton, CA 94566 PO Box 1603 Union City, CA 94587 Advertisements Source California Secretary of State According to PG&Es complaint, CCI did hauling work for Bay Area Concrete, which would submit invoices directly to PG&E. Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey said last year that PG&E alerted his office to the allegations against Bay Area Concrete. A slumping chain-link fence with barbed wire surrounds most of the property. PG&E alleges that Huggins was aware of Kooista's actions and did not disclose them. 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.. The same month, San Jose code enforcement officials cited the company for operating a recycling transfer facility without permits. He said the company received only a day's warning when PG&E canceled its contracts and released the CEO's memo. The litigation process will make this clear in time.. 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. The Bay City News Foundation and ProPublica first reported the exchange, which one expert described as possible money laundering. Is the Stanley Quencher tumbler worth its TikTok hype? Corporate records unearthed by the news organizations reveal new details about the alleged schemes. Days before the Paradise fire was officially declared contained on Nov. 25, an attorney for Singh and Johal, Steven Benjamin of Sacramento, filed papers with the state for a new real estate company, Regal Rose LLC. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City staff described broken promises, obstruction and apparently willful violation of the law. Under California law, PG&E executives couldn't be prosecuted for behavior about which they lacked direct knowledge. In 2017, Bay Area Concrete opened new slurry waste disposal facilities in Richmond and Sacramento. In 2019, they leased land on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay for concrete recycling. Olivero reached an agreement with federal prosecutors to testify against Lucero. In November 2013, Hayward officials received a complaint alleging that Singh and Johal had ignored the city and begun operating the recycling facility without a permit. In its suit, Bay Area Concrete alleged that it had saved PG&E millions of dollars by doing disposal work in Paradise more cheaply than a competitor. This is in addition to avoiding the significant negative environmental impacts that trucking and processing these materials elsewhere in the state would have caused.. One day, a PG&E employee crossed the street and offered Bay Area Concrete a contract to use street sweeping trucks to clean the PG&E facility, according to Packal. He sold his home in Rocklin and moved to Arizona. 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. "The allegations are patently false and not supported by the evidence," she 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. (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). "Imagine how cavalier they will be if you approve this permit.". In a statement, PG&E spokesperson James Noonan called the alleged actions of Bay Area Concrete "completely unacceptable.". Public records show that the company's income increased substantially, from $16.5 million to $43.5 million, after receiving a contract to dispose of waste in connection with the Paradise fire. Skip to Header OhioHealth Home / Find A Doctor / / Profile 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. To pay the bribes, Singh used a series of real estate transactions involving a 5,600-square-foot home in Saratoga to transfer money to Kooistra, PG&E alleges. Driven by gusts of up to 36 mph, the fire was heading straight for Paradise. Dawn Sweatt, an attorney for Bay Area Concrete, said her clients vehemently deny the allegations by PG&E. Chris Packal, Bay Area Concrete's operations manager, downplayed the citations the company received from regulators in Hayward and other cities as minor corrections. In the same year they hired Olivero, Johal and Singh expanded into the business of disposing slurry waste collected by specialized disposal trucks known as hydrovacs. The firm was tied to illegal dumping on federally protected wetlands and had engaged in a long conflict with regulators in the city of Hayward, where Bay Area Concrete operates a dump. "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. Corporate records unearthed by the news organizations show that while the fire still burned in Paradise, an attorney for Bay Area Concrete's owners registered a limited liability company at the business address of another one of the owners' companies. The complaint alleges that Huggins and Kooistra approved the overbilled work in exchange for kickbacks. He said the utility had offered to pay $9.3 million after the company made a statement accusing PG&E of trying to avoid outstanding fees. Kooistra did not respond to attempts to contact him by phone, mail or social media. As a result, the value of Bay Area Concretes contracts with PG&E increased exponentially over a period of four years, the lawsuit said. 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 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 alleges that in exchange for these kickbacks, the employees provided lucrative clean-up jobs to Hayward-based Bay Area Concrete Recycling. Singh and Johal's companies also have a history of not cooperating with inspectors. In multiple interviews with the news organizations, Bay Area Concrete officials denied the firm had done anything wrong. At the time, PG&E owed Bay Area Concrete nearly $4 million, according to bankruptcy filings. "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.". 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. According to PG&E's complaint, CCI did hauling work for Bay Area Concrete, which would submit invoices directly to PG&E. When confronted by PG&E investigators, Huggins told the investigators he had paid the $16,750 bill in cash, which he happened to have on hand in his house. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Under Kooistra's supervision, PG&E hired Bay Area Concrete to build a new slurry disposal center at a former Waste Management facility in Paradise. He wrote he was concerned rocks would tumble onto his property and hit someone. In an interview, Bay Area Concrete operations manager Chris Packal argued that there were legitimate differences in opinion over what zoning allowed for the site in Hayward. Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. / CBS San Francisco, by Scott Morris, Bay City News Foundation. The investigation was co-published on Tuesday by ProPublica and the Bay City News Foundation. Later, the news agencies revealed a suspicious real estate transaction that connected Singh and one of the PG&E employees. In February 2020, PG&E canceled Bay Area Concrete's contracts and publicly announced its belief that the waste company had committed fraud. 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. Dawn Sweatt, an attorney for Bay Area Concrete, said her clients "vehemently deny" the allegations by PG&E. 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