Firm Pleads Guilty to Fraud in Testing of Soil for Toxins

A major government contractor pleaded guilty Monday to defrauding the government by falsifying test results of soil samples from Superfund toxic waste sites.

Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), which is based here, pleaded guilty to seven counts of making false statements to the federal Environmental Protection Agency and to three counts of making false claims for payment to the government in 1987 and 1988.

The company also paid $1.3 million in restitution and penalties, which U.S. Atty. William Braniff called “the largest environmental fraud fine we’ve had here in recent memory.”

Braniff said he believed the plea agreement, which came after a three-year investigation, sent “a clear message that integrity is an essential ingredient to testing in this vital area.”

Noting that while SAIC voluntarily disclosed the false test results when it learned of them, Braniff said, “its disclosures were not complete enough. . . . We could not make assessments of corporate responsibility” without a grand jury investigation. “They had the information. They could have provided it.”

Charles Nichols, an SAIC spokesman, disagreed. “The company disclosed everything it knew. That is the sum total of it.”

Six SAIC employees have pleaded guilty to falsifying test results and other charges. And because the SAIC lab was paid more if it met EPA deadlines, some employees backdated results, overcharging the government about $100,000. EPA officials said it is difficult to say whether the false test results posed any public health risk. Samples were traced and in some cases retested. Most were from the East Coast, officials said.