RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A former corporate executive of a Richmond-based construction management company has been sentenced to 27 months in prison for his role in a corporate accounting scheme that concealed millions of dollars in debt owed by the company.
According to court documents, Patrick Lindsey, 43, of Midlothian, was the Vice President of Preconstruction Services at MGT Construction. The company offered preconstruction planning and construction management services.
From 2011 through November 2016, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA) says that MGT Construction engaged in a fraudulent accounting scheme that sought to conceal its true financial position.
“Over a five-year period, Patrick Lindsey served an integral role in a large-scale corporate accounting fraud scheme designed to conceal the fact that MGT Construction was more than $20 million in debt,” Acting U.S. Attorney for the EDVA Raj Parekh said. “That deceit not only maintained the defendant’s job and padded his annual compensation package, but it also proved devastating to the individuals who worked on MGT Construction projects and were left holding the bag after the fraud scheme was uncovered and the company subsequently collapsed.”
According to a release, Lindsey moved or deleted thousands of job cost invoices during the conspiracy to hide the company’s debt. But when the accounting fraud was exposed, MGT Construction owed millions of dollars in outstanding invoices that it could not pay to dozens of contractors, subcontractors, and vendors. As a result, MGT filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in early 2018.
