Washington Township Businessman Sentenced For Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud Relating to Procurement of Government Set-Aside Contracts

A Washington Township, Michigan man was sentenced on December 19, 2019 to serve 12 months in federal custody for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, United States Attorney Matthew Schneider announced today.

Schneider was joined in the announcement by Special Agent-in-Charge, Jeffrey Ryan, General Services Administration, Office of Inspector General.

Dennis Pomante, age 68, received the sentence from the Honorable Denise Page Hood, Chief United States District Judge. Judge Hood also ordered that the defendant pay a fine of $50,000, forfeit $30,000 to the United States, and serve two years on supervised release after his release from federal custody.    

According to the information provided to the Court at the time of his guilty plea and sentencing, Mr. Pomante, from July 2006 through July 2014, devised and executed a scheme to defraud various government departments and agencies by making false material misrepresentations to obtain numerous government contracts which were set-aside for small businesses owned by service disabled veterans or socially disadvantaged individuals. The scheme involved POMANTE and co-conspirators falsely claiming that U.S. Builders Group, Inc. [USBG], a Detroit- based business, was a small business owned and controlled by a service-disabled veteran as defined by federal regulations. Mr. Pomante and his co-conspirators knew that USBG was an affiliated business of another business and did not qualify as a “small business,” and that a service-disabled veteran did not control the business as required to receive the contracts they bid on. Through these misrepresentations, USBG was able to obtain over $100 million in federal contracts that would otherwise have gone mainly to genuine small, service- disabled, veteran-owned businesses. Mr. Pomante is now retired, and no longer has ownership in the involved businesses. USBG went out of business in 2014. 

"The GSA Office of Inspector General will aggressively pursue contractors who make false representations in order to obtain federal contracts” said Special Agent-in-Charge, Jeffrey Ryan. “Schemes to fraudulently access opportunities designated as set-aside contracts cheat the government and deserving bidders.”

The case was jointly investigated by agents of the Offices of Inspectors General for the Veterans’ Administration, the General Services Administration, the Small Business Administration, and the Department of Defense, and prosecuted by the White Collar Crimes Unit of the United States Attorney’s Office.