McGuffey Mall High Bidder Faces Federal Charges
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- A principal of Highway Contracting LLC, the apparent successful bidder for the McGuffey Mall and Garland Plaza (READ STORY), was charged in a 37-count federal indictment late last year for actions involving a separate but related company.
David Bonamase of Canfield and Scott Bonamase of Streetsboro conspired to avoid paying more than $279,000 in taxes, according to a news release issued Dec. 5 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of Ohio. The two were charged with conspiracy, willful failure to collect or pay over tax, filing false tax returns and making false statements to government agents in connection with their operation of A. Bonamase Contracting Inc., Boardman.
Additionally, Highway Contracting, Bonamase Contracting, and Scott, David and Edward Bonamase are listed as defendants in multiple civil complaints filed in Mahoning County court over the years.
David Bonamase is listed as civil engineer on the websites for both Highway Contracting and A. Bonamase. Highway Contracting, which gives a Poland post office box as the mailing address on its website, bid $150,000 for the McGuffey Mall and Garland Plaza on the East Side in an online auction that ended Wednesday. Bonamase Contracting gives a Boardman address for its offices.
Each of the largely similar websites identifies the respective company as “an Ohio-based, family-owned business” with more than 15 years of experience in “highway, site and utilities excavation,” having “performed and completed bonded projects ranging from $100,000 to $1.3 million.” Both sites also say the companies are licensed to work in Ohio, Tennessee and Florida.
Highway Contracting's website says it specializes in excavation, demolition and site work. Since 2000, the family-owned business has served public, private and state clients that need help with sewer removal and excavation, site excavation, sewer contracting, building demolition, utility excavation, and storm culvert and watering demolition.
Edward Bonamase of Canfield, identified as project manager on both the Bonamase Contracting and Highway Contracting sites, is listed as agent on documents filed with the Ohio Secretary of State’s office for both companies.
A representative answering the phone number on the Highway Contracting website contacted following the auction Wednesday said company officials would have no comment.
According to the news release announcing the indictment, for the years 2006 through 2009, “Scott Bonamase willfully under-reported employee gross wages to the Internal Revenue Service and Scott and David Bonamase omitted payments to employees in the books and records of the company.”
The indictment alleges that Bonamase Contracting “had contracts with government agencies that required certified payroll reports to verify that they were paying the prevailing wage,” but “Scott and David Bonamase willfully falsified, signed and submitted certified payroll reports to the government” that they were being paid prevailing age when they were being paid less than that amount, according to the indictment.
The criminal case is pending, said Michael Tobin, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Cleveland.
According to documents posted on the court docket, the Bonamases have waived their right to a speedy trial and instead may be entering into plea negotiations. In September the Cleveland law firm representing David Bonamase, McDonald Hopkins LLC, filed a sealed motion to withdraw Richard H. Blake as his counsel. Judge Christopher A. Boyko granted the motion Oct. 1.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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