OPERATION RESTORE PUBLIC INTEGRITY INDICTMENT RETURNED

Hammond, IN—The United States Attorney's Office today announced the return of a seven count indictment charging Jewell G. Harris, Sr., age 66, of Gary, Indiana with fraud and money laundering in the operation of a false billing scheme. Harris is an owner and Chief Executive Officer of several businesses, including Enterprise Trucking and Waste Hauling, which had a demolition hauling contract with the City of Gary. In addition, Harris held various lobbying and consulting contracts with the City of Gary, and served in various roles in connection with Gary city government.

On August 13, 2001, the City entered into a contract with a vendor to excavate the site for the baseball stadium to be constructed between 4th and 5th Avenues on Gary's East side. The stadium was to be built 13 feet below grade, necessitating the excavation of over 100,000 tons of sand, dirt, and other materials from the 13 acre site. The indictment alleges that Harris compelled this vendor to subcontract with Enterprise to haul this excavation material from the site. Enterprise was to be paid on a hourly basis for this work.

Enterprise also had contracts with the City of Gary for the hauling of demolition debris, and that Enterprise was to be paid per ton for the hauling of this material.

The indictment alleges that from June through at least August, 2001, Harris defrauded the City of Gary by directing Enterprise trucks hauling excavation materials under its sub-contract with the excavation vendor, to drive over the Gary Sanitary District scale to weigh each load, and to obtain a weigh ticket for each load. Harris then had Enterprise use the weigh tickets to bill the City of Gary Department of Redevelopment, as though the trucks were hauling and disposing of demolition debris under his other contracts with the City of Gary. The indictment alleges that Harris concealed from the City of Gary that the weigh tickets were for the hauling of excavation material as opposed to demolition material, and that he concealed from the City of Gary that Enterprise was already being paid for the hauling of this material by the vendor that was performing the excavation work for the baseball stadium site.

The indictment alleges that Enterprise was paid $90,000.00 for the hauling of excavation material under its contract with the baseball stadium excavation vendor, and that in connection with the scheme to defraud the City of Gary, Enterprise collected over $1.5 million from the City of Gary.

In addition to the criminal charges of mail and wire fraud and money laundering, the indictment seeks forfeiture of the amount derived from the scheme charged in the indictment.

United States Attorney Joseph S. VanBokkelen stated, "This is another sad chapter in what seems to be an ongoing abuse of the public's trust in Northwest Indiana. This office is committed to investigating and prosecuting those responsible for these abuses. The public is entitled to know that they are not being defrauded."

These indictments were the result of an extensive cooperative investigation. Participating in this investigation were the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Indiana State Police, and the Internal Revenue Service. This matter is assigned to and will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Bernard L.Van Wormer and Thomas L. Kirsch, II.

The specific sentence to be imposed upon conviction in each case will be determined by the judge after a consideration of federal sentencing statutes and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

The United States Attorney's Office emphasized that an Indictment is merely an allegation and that all persons charged are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.