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Three former Boucher & James, Inc. executives were arrested for defrauding more than 100 entities including municipalities in Pennsylvania, according to the state’s Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

Boucher & James is based in Pennsylvania. It provides services in land planning, civil engineering, landscape architecture, surveying, and building code compliance to more than 30 municipalities.

Attorney General Shapiro said the three defendants in custody include former Boucher & James owner and Board member, Ross Boucher and former managing directors Mark Eisold and David Jones.

Boucher, Jones, and Eisold allegedly repeatedly billed municipalities and other clients for fictitious times and covered up their fraudulent scheme between 2009 and 2018.

In a statement, Attorney General Shapiro said, “These company executives took advantage of their municipal clients’ trust by routinely overbilling for work that never happened.”

“Let’s be clear about what this means: when you bill for [the] time that you didn’t work, you are stealing — and these former Boucher & James executives will be held accountable for their crimes,” he added.

Boucher, Jones, and Eisold have been charged with theft by deception, theft by receiving stolen property, deceptive business practices, corrupt organizations, and conspiracy.

 Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office investigated Boucher & James

The Attorney General Shapiro’s Office opened an investigation into Boucher and James after another managing director at the company discovered the defendant’s fraudulent scheme and reported it to law enforcement.

In 2018, the managing director reviewed the company’s bills and found Eisold’s handwritten additional hours into the draft invoices of his clients.  He noticed that one employee was recorded to have worked 34 hours in one day, which was a discrepancy.

The discrepancy prompted the managing director to review Eisold’s other billing and found that he was consistently overbilling clients. The managing director informed his colleagues about the discrepancies and subsequently reported his findings to law enforcement.

Boucher & James reimbursed more than $851K to clients

The Northampton County District Attorney referred the case to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, which found that Boucher and James' employees stole around $2.1 million from clients. The three defendants received bonuses as a result of their fraud scheme.

According to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, more than 100 entities suffered losses as a result of the defendant’s fraudulent scheme or theft.

The defendants resigned from their position. Boucher and James cooperated with the investigation and reached a settlement agreement with AG Shapiro’s office. The company repaid more than $851,000 in overbilled funds to clients dating back to January 1, 2015.

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