Testing firm guilty of fraud

Michael R. Bennett and his company, Workplace Compliance Inc., both pled guilty Feb. 18 in U.S. District Court in Winston-Salem, N.C., to three counts of wire fraud, the U.S. Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General announced. Bennett also pled guilty to one additional count of making false statements.

The charges stemmed from Bennett using his company, WCI, a drug and alcohol testing consortium, to fraudulently perform final reviews on numerous drug test results from laboratories utilized by motor carriers and air carriers when neither Bennett nor his company were authorized to do so.

The investigation revealed that between 2005 and 2009, Bennett obtained lab test results and used computer software to generate fraudulent Medical Review Officer reports that claimed that an MRO had verified the lab test results and that the report was in compliance with DOT regulations of transportation workplace drug and alcohol testing programs.