Company touted by Trump to build the wall has history of fines, violations

[Judi Lynn]

Source: CNN


By Priscilla Alvarez, Clare Foran and Ryan Browne, CNN

Updated 1:24 AM ET, Fri May 31, 2019

Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump appears to have set his sights on a North Dakota construction firm with a checkered legal record to build portions of his signature border wall.

The family-owned company, Fisher Sand & Gravel, claims it can build the wall cheaper and faster than competitors. It was among a handful of construction firms chosen to build prototypes of the President's border wall in 2017 and is currently constructing portions of barrier on private land along the border in New Mexico using private donations.

It also, however, has a history of red flags including more than $1 million in fines for environmental and tax violations. A decade ago, a former co-owner of the company pleaded guilty to tax fraud, and was sentenced to prison. The company also admitted to defrauding the federal government by impeding the IRS. The former executive, who's a brother of the current company owner, is no longer associated with it.

More than two years into his presidency, Trump is still fighting to build and pay for his border wall, a key campaign issue. After failing to get his requests for wall funding passed by a Republican-held Congress during his first two years in office, Trump has met resistance this year from a Democratic-controlled House. His attempt to circumvent Congress through a national emergency declaration has been challenged in the courts.


Read more: https://us.cnn.com/2019/05/31/politics/fisher-sand-and-gravel-legal-history-border-wall/index.html

[sakabatou]

1. Why am I not surprised?!

[shraby]

2. He's figuring how much he can get in kickbacks. That's why he is salivating over that

damn wall.

[dchill]

3. Sounds like a perfect fit!

[duforsure]

4. If he hires anyone

They should look into it very closely for campaign donations to his PAC, which he could be funneling it into his own pockets using purchases or other ways, but anyone he contracts may be given these contracts after they commit to payoffs for them. He's corrupt and they should look into how he does business using the government as another tool to make himself money with his position.

[riversedge]

5. crooks standing side by side with each other is the image I get

[Scarsdale]

6. Well, of course they are crooked.

tRump never associates with honest, upstanding people. Look at his cabinet, it is full of suspicious characters. He only hires scummy people. Surrounds himself with people who are as crooked as he is. Yes, there has to be a huge kickback promised to him, which is why he is fighting so hard for funding. His golfing trips cost a fortune, but he is not making enough $$$$ from those, so here comes the wall. He does not have one honest bone under all that orange flab.