A Wisconsin contractor was indicted in a fraud and money laundering scheme to capture more than $200 million in federal contracts targeted to benefit small, disadvantaged businesses.
A federal grand jury indicted Brian Ganos, owner of Sonag Company Inc., of Muskegon, Wisc. He is accused of setting up businesses with straw owners who qualified as socially and economically disadvantaged individuals or as service-disabled veterans.
The businesses were actually controlled by Ganos, the indictment alleges. Ganos is Latino, and qualified as a minority business owner of Sonag from 1994 to 2003. He then graduated from the program and was no longer eligible for set-aside contracts.
The alleged scheme lasted for a dozen years, according to the indictment.
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