Nagan Construction Whistleblower Lawsuit

Case Name: United States of America and State of New York ex rel. Soner Yasti v. Nagan Construction and Nadir Uygan 

Case Type: Whistleblower/ Qui Tam

Filed in: U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

Case no.: 1:17-CV-07163

In December 2019, Sanford Heisler Sharp, the U.S. Government, and the State of New York settled a whistleblower action brought under the federal and New York State False Claims Act (“FCA”) against New York-based construction company Nagan Construction, Inc. and Nadir Uygan. As part of the settlement, Nagan Construction agreed to pay $831,000 to the U.S. Government and New York State. Soni Yasti, the Relator, who was represented by Sanford Heisler Sharp, received 20% of the federal and state settlements.

The case alleged that Nagan Construction systematically failed to comply with the terms of the construction contracts it held with the federal and New York State governments, after winning construction bids for the Delano Hall dining facility at the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York, the Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, New York, and the South Bronx Job Corps Center in Bronx, New York.

These contracts required Nagan Construction to pay its workers the prevailing wage under the Davis-Bacon Act and other related laws. Mr. Yasti, a former Project Manager/Superintendent at Nagan Construction, claimed that Nagan misclassified its workers as laborers even though they performed work that entitled them to a higher wage. 

The claims brought against Mr. Uygan were limited to the State of New York.

In addition to the wage violations, the New York State settlement covered Nagan Construction’s unlawful overcharging of the Government for construction services.