Men Fraudulently Win Millions in VA Contracts Designated for Disabled Veterans
A Tale of Two Eddies
Edward DiGorio Jr. and Edward Kessler owned ADDVETCO, Inc. and Hi-Def Contracting, Inc. From 2007 to 2018, they obtained 67 “set-aside” contacts from the VA, which were supposed to go to businesses owned by service-disabled veterans. Of these contracts, 50 had a value of more than $1 million dollars, according to the VA.
But neither DiGorio nor Kessler ever served in the military. They competed for the contracts by paying disabled veterans to pose as the actual owners of their companies, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office press release.
Previous Contract Challenge
In 2016, one of the companies involved in the fraud, ADDVETCO, challenged a VA award of a flooring contract at the VA Medical Center in Pittsburgh, PA to another certified disabled veteran-owned business. The Government Accountability Office upheld the VA’s decision, noting that ADDVETCO “lacked the confirmed leadership to accomplish this time-sensitive project.”
While their construction companies operated in and around the Pittsburgh area, both DiGorio and Kessler currently reside in Myrtle Beach, SC, according to the U.S. Attorney General’s
Office.
ADDVETCO was established in 2007 and generates an annual revenue of $6.6 million, while Hi-Def Contracting was established in 2009 and generates an annual revenue of $1.8 million, according to their Manta profiles. Manta is a business listing service that claims to source its information from public records and company input.
Guilty Plea
DiGorio and Kessler pled guilty in federal court to charges related to two recent contracts, in which both men netted more than $400,000 in profit.
DiGorio and Kessler will be sentenced on July 18. They face ten years in prison and $1 million in fines each.
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