Suits Accuse CSUN of Fraud in Quake Work

A former architect at Cal State Northridge has alleged in two lawsuits that the university defrauded the Federal Emergency Management Agency out of millions of dollars billed for earthquake repairs.

A. Amir Ali, who was fired after seven months on the job and now works for FEMA, said in a federal lawsuit unsealed this week that the university billed the government for a number of construction jobs that were not earthquake related, including more than $1 million to add sprinkler systems to 10 buildings that did not have them before the quake.

Also, according to Ali in his complaint, the university ignored his warnings that contractors were inflating their bids. For instance, he said, a major contractor refused to accept competitive bids from subcontractors for expensive flooring work for 15 buildings. Instead, Ali claimed, the work went to a friend.

“CSUN has falsified a number of documents, including claims to the United States government and FEMA,” Ali said in court papers.

Art Elbert, the campus vice president in charge of earthquake repairs, said he does not know anything about Ali or his allegations. CSUN President Blenda Wilson is out of the country, Elbert said. Spokeswoman Carmen Ramos Chandler said she is not familiar with the case.

But earthquake-damage consultant Charles Thiel, who chairs the Seismic Safety Board for the California State University system and was in charge of enforcing state building codes at CSUN during earthquake recovery, disputed many of Ali’s claims.

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As an example, he said FEMA knew all along that the 10 buildings did not have sprinkler systems before the quake. State law, he said, required them to be rebuilt to specifications in the building code, adding that in this case it meant that they needed sprinklers.

Ali’s assertions, Thiel said, “are all wrong.”

FEMA also declined comment, citing a policy of not speaking about pending litigation or investigations.

“Naturally, FEMA is always interested in seeing that fraud against the government be exposed and dealt with,” spokesman John Treanor said. Treanor confirmed that Ali is a contract employee of the agency, but did not say what his job involves.

Ali, who also has a pending wrongful termination suit against CSUN, has refused to comment on both cases.

In court papers, he claims he was fired by Bill Chatham, the embattled former CSUN administrator who with his wife, Jane, was in charge of overseeing earthquake repairs, for complaining about alleged irregularities. The couple, who have since resigned, were publicly censured by campus president Wilson after disclosures in The Times that earthquake repair contractors had done work on their Northridge home.

Bill Chatham, reached by telephone at home as he prepared to leave the area for a new job, declined comment.

One of the suits was filed under the so-called whistle-blower law, which allows people who can prove a company or agency filed false claims against the government to keep part of the money if it is recovered in court. The suit names as defendants the university and the Chathams.

In that case, which was partially unsealed Monday, Ali does not specify the total amount allegedly overbilled to FEMA. But his attorney, Brian Brown of Tustin, said he estimates the amount to be between $3 million and $5 million. Ali is asking for three times the overbilled amount once it is determined, along with back pay and punitive damages.

The U.S. attorney for Los Angeles has declined to become involved in the case. Spokeswoman Carol Levitsky would not explain why or comment on the case’s merits. But she said the government would still be able to collect if CSUN is found to have submitted false claims.

Brown, the filing attorney, suggested that economics was at play. “It’s smallish by United States standards,” Brown said. “It’s not smallish to you and I. It means that $3 [million] to $5 million of money some other earthquake-damaged person might have access to.”

Several of Ali’s claims seem to reflect the widespread dispute between FEMA and quake victims in general over whether the agency should pay to bring damaged buildings up to code if they were below code before the quake.

In one such CSUN instance cited by Ali, he said $100,000 in work to put trusses in the ceilings of student apartments was unnecessary and not related to the earthquake. But Thiel said the trusses were needed to hold up the sprinklers.

Thiel also conceded that several jobs were assigned to subcontractors without going through a bidding process. But he said that was necessary to allow the university to reopen quickly.

In his wrongful termination suit, in which Ali named Wilson as a defendant along with the Chathams, the architect said he oversaw the submission of so-called field instructions, or documents asking for extra reimbursement for unforeseen work or work unrelated to the earthquake. He was also responsible for monitoring the work on certain campus facilities and submitting contracts and invoices from contractors and subcontractors.

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In late May 1994, Ali said in the suit, he began to believe that “certain contractors were doing work which defendant Blenda Wilson, Bill Chatham and Jane Chatham were characterizing as eligible for reimbursement by FEMA as earthquake related repairs, but which were not in fact earthquake related.”

Ali said because he refused to falsify documents and had complained repeatedly about supposed abuses, he was fired in September 1994.

“He uncovered fraud and waste and abuse and was fired for it,” Brown said. “He is interested in making sure it doesn’t happen again.”