Questions Surround Trump's $11M Wall Contract With Tiny Startup Accused Of Shady Billing
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A tiny Nebraska startup awarded the first border wall construction project under President Donald Trump is the offshoot of a construction firm that was accused in a government audit of shady billing practices.
SWF Constructors lists just one employee in its Omaha office. Still, it won the $11 million federal contract in November to replace more than 2 miles of border fence in California with post-style barriers. The project represents a sliver of a plan central to Trump's presidential campaign promise for a wall at the border with Mexico.
Its owner is Edgewood, New York-based Coastal Environmental Group. A lawyer who represented a contractor that sued Coastal for failure to pay speculates the company might have applied for the wall contract under SWF in an attempt to dodge scrutiny.
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