Investigations

On April 6, 2023, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) suspended Madhura Atitkar, Sandeep Hardikar, and their construction management firms, Vega Solutions, Inc., and Janust Solutions, Inc., respectively, from participating in all federally funded procurement and non-procurement programs and activities. Previously, Hardikar, Atitkar, and Vega Solutions were charged in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, honest services fraud, Federal program bribery, and False Claims Act offenses. The charges were in connection to the Amtrak 30th Street Station Facade Repair and Restoration Project in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, valued at over $87 million and funded mostly through FRA grants. Amtrak awarded approximately $4.2 million in construction management contracts to Vega Solutions to monitor the work performed for this project.

 

According to court documents, from December 2016 until November 2019, Atitkar, the owner and president of Vega Solutions, Hardikar, and other individuals, conspired and agreed to develop schemes to defraud Amtrak. Atitkar, Hardikar, and another individual also developed and implemented multiple fraudulent billing schemes through which Vega Solutions overcharged Amtrak.

 

DOT-OIG is conducting this investigation with Amtrak-OIG and the FBI.