Investigations

On June 2, 2017, Akram Ahmad was sentenced in Hamilton County Court, Indian Lake, New York, to a conditional discharge of 3 years and ordered to pay a $2,500 fine and a $375 surcharge for offering a false instrument with fraudulent intent. He had been convicted on March 17, 2017. 

 

Ahmad’s conviction stemmed from his role in the falsification of a Hamilton County bridge inspection report in December 2013. He had been an employee of an engineering firm contracted to conduct bridge inspections for the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), a program that receives Federal funding through FHWA. He inspected the Gilmantown Road Bridge in December 2013, which had been inspected in 2012 and its defects repaired in September 2013. Ahmad’s December 2013 inspection report noted the same deficiencies and language used in the 2012 report. NYSDOT performed an inspection in early 2014 and found that the repairs to the bridge had indeed been made.

 

DOT-OIG conducted this investigation jointly with the NYS-OIG, with assistance from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department.