EquipmentShare sues ex-project manager over alleged kickbacks on a $3.4 million San Antonio build

The complaint, filed Monday in federal court in San Antonio, says the manager recommended bidders for jobs in Gonzales, Alice and San Antonio that he knew would help skim money from inflated payments, the San Antonio Express-News reported. EquipmentShare, a publicly traded company based in Missouri, accuses him and his co-defendants of breaking the federal racketeering law and conspiring to break it. It does not name a dollar amount. The claims are allegations and have not been tested in court.

For the San Antonio facility, EquipmentShare says it hired Hitchcock-based AEL Constructors on the manager's advice, and AEL planned to hand the work to SJS Industrial. The company says it paid $3.4 million, most of which the defendants kept, and got a building with a leaking roof and builder-grade finishes where it had ordered custom ones. In Gonzales, a job it expected to cost $250,000, it says SJS received $650,700. SJS then subcontracted to a company the manager owns, which paid Kardosz Inc. $207,167 to do the actual work, leaving $443,533 unexplained. Kardosz is not being sued. In Alice, the suit describes sham bidding by two consulting firms run by a friend of the manager.

EquipmentShare says it fired the manager in July for poor performance after just over two years, and learned of the alleged scheme when Kardosz reported its work in Gonzales. In an Oct. 30 letter attached to the suit, his lawyer said the firing amounted to age discrimination and asked for $350,000. The same letter says AEL is still owed about $700,000 in San Antonio and SJS about $300,000 in Gonzales. The defendants and EquipmentShare did not answer the newspaper's requests for comment.