Feds find nearly $2M in fraudulent expenses at SRS

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Federal prosecutors say five people have been convicted and nearly $2 million has been recovered in an investigation into fraudulent expense claims from stimulus money given to the Savannah River Site.

U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles said they are the first convictions and civil settlements related to the Department of Energy’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The law awarded money to contractors helping clean up nuclear waste at the former nuclear weapons plant near Aiken.

Investigators say some of the contractors submitted inflated expense reports. Nettles say the individual amounts were small, but eventually added up to millions of dollars.

Nettles says he wants to send a message that even small amounts of fraud against the U.S. government won’t be tolerated.