Former and Present Owners of Standish Surveying Company Plead Guilty in Scheme to Defraud the United States Department of Transportation, Corporation to Enter Compliance Agreement and Pay $1.1 million in Connection with the Scheme

BAY CITY – Anthony Thelen, current co-owner and executive of Surveying Solutions Inc. (SSI), a surveying firm based in Standish, Michigan, and Adam Ball, a former owner and executive of SSI, have pleaded guilty today to defrauding the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) through the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. announced. United States Attorney Gorgon also announced that SSI has agreed to enter a non-prosecution agreement with the United States, enabling the corporation to avoid criminal prosecution in exchange for enhanced internal controls, corporate reporting requirements, and a criminal monetary penalty.

Gorgon is joined in this announcement by Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Michigan Division, and Anthony Licari, Special Agent in Charge United States Department of Transportation – Midwestern Region.

Adam Ball, 48, of Saginaw, Michigan and Anthony Thelen, 47, of Pewamo, Michigan, pleaded guilty to one count of Conspiracy to Defraud the United States. On July 28, 2025, their co-defendants Jeffrey Bartlett, Brian Bartlett, and Andrew Semenchuk pleaded guilty. According to facts made public at the plea hearings, from approximately February 2011 through July 2019, Adam Ball and Anthony Thelen, along with their co-defendants, owned and operated SSI, a surveying company that was directly or indirectly awarded millions of dollars in highway construction contracts by MDOT. Those contracts were funded almost entirely by federal funds through USDOT. In the course of seeking and participating in MDOT contracts and reimbursement for work performed on those contracts, Ball, Thelen, and their co-defendants engaged in fraudulent overbilling resulting in MDOT making millions of dollars of overpayments to SSI, a large portion of which Ball, Thelen and their co-defendants distributed among themselves. The fraudulent overbilling included reporting false and non-existent employee and information technology costs, reporting improper and inflated equipment and real property lease costs, and concealing the true ownership of and control over the SSI entities to justify the overbillings.

Under the terms of the non-prosecution agreement SSI has entered with the United States Attorney’s Office, SSI has agreed to, among other things, enter into an enhanced compliance program, to report to the government regarding remediation and implementation of their enhanced compliance program, and to pay $1.1 million in a monetary penalty. If SSI satisfies the terms of the agreement, the company will not be charged criminally. 

The United States Attorney’s Office reached this agreement with SSI based on numerous factors, among those the fact that SSI cooperated with federal agencies investigating the case and that SSI has implemented extensive remedial measures, including reorganizing under new management, and establishing a compliance program to detect and prevent similar fraud in the future.

This investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Karen L. Reyolds, T. Patrick Martin, William Vailliencourt, and K. Craig Welkener.