The New York City district attorney’s criminal indictment of Manhattan-based construction management and interiors firm The Builders Group for stealing nearly $7 million from five private-sector clients now accompanies ongoing civil lawsuits by those owners. The Jan. 27 indictment against the firm, its president George Figliolia and two other executives, charges them with a kickback scheme on projects such as condo conversions and office renovations that inflated construction costs through submission of false subcontractor bills between 2006 and 2009. Names of clients were not disclosed in the indictment, but the firm previously cited work for firms such as AT&T, Tiffany’s and Merrill Lynch, according to published reports. One real estate client is now seeking to recover $3 million in overpayments, according to a source close to that legal battle. The Builders Group could not be reached. Figliolia is a cousin of Alex Figliolia, head of a city-based plumbing contractor who pleaded guilty in 2003 to charges in an overbilling scheme on work at a new building being leased by the city’s transit agency.
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