Massachusetts Company to Pay $900,000 in Fraud Case

A Massachusetts construction company has agreed to pay $900,000 to settle civil claims that it defrauded the government by overcharging for asphalt used in federally funded paving projects.

P.A. Landers Inc., based in Hanover and Plymouth, agreed to the payment to settle a civil complaint filed in federal court in 2005.

The complaint alleged that from 1995 through at least 2003, employees of the company generated fake and inflated weight slips for truck loads of asphalt.

In May 2007, company president Preston Landers and vice president Gregory Keelan were convicted of conspiring to defraud the state and several municipalities. Landers was sentenced to 42 months in prison, while Keelan was sentenced to 30 months.

The company was ordered to pay a $3 million fine to settle criminal charges.