Gas Pipeline Safety Inspector Gets Prison For Falsifying Westchester Test Results

NEW YORK — A contracted safety inspector has been sentenced on federal charges related to faking gas pipeline test results in Westchester County and New York City.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jamie McDonald, announced that Michael Vasconcellos was sentenced to 30 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to fabricate hundreds of gas pipeline safety test results provided to Con Edison, resulting in the utility incurring more than $60 million in remediation costs.

On April 21, the 45-year-old Mahopac man pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud.

"Michael Vasconcellos fabricated gas pipeline test results designed to prevent gas leaks and explosions, putting the lives of New Yorkers at risk," McDonald said. "Today, the defendant faces the consequences of this fraud, having been sentenced to 30 months in prison. Instead of doing his job, the defendant left New Yorkers relying on critical safety checks that never happened, and cost a utility company more than $64 million in remediation."

Between 2016 and 2023, Vasconcellos and his co-conspirator, Liam Treibert, were contacted to perform safety inspections of welds on natural gas pipelines that were being installed throughout New York City and Westchester County. Those inspections were necessary to ensure that the welds did not contain defects that could cause gas leaks or explosions. Vasconcellos and Treibert lied about having inspected hundreds of welds that they never actually reviewed and created fraudulent records to cover up what they had done, according to a federal indictment. As a result, Con Edison not only paid for hundreds of sham inspections and was deceived by Vasconcellos and Treibert into thinking that its pipelines had passed critical safety tests that the pair never performed, according to prosecutors.

As part of the pipeline installation process, Con Edison or its contractors would typically place gas pipelines into the ground in segments and then weld those segments together. Before a pipeline could be put into service, the welds throughout the pipeline had to be inspected to assess their quality. Those inspections included non-destructive testing.

One common form of non-destructive testing of pipeline welds involved radiographs, often referred to as x-rays. Radiographic testing required a team to radiograph each weld and then examine the films to identify any defects in the welds. If a defect was identified, then the weld would have to be repaired before the pipeline was put into service. Failure to repair a defect before a pipeline was put into service could have led to critical failures, including gas leaks or explosions.

Vasconcellos and Treibert, while performing radiographic testing for Con Edison, repeatedly engaged in a practice referred to in the non-destructive testing industry as "radaring," according to the feds.

Radaring typically understood to be radiographing the same weld twice and then passing off one copy of films as having come from a second weld.

In total, hundreds of welds across Con Edison's pipelines installed throughout the Bronx and Westchester County, between 2016 and 2023, were affected by radaring engaged in by Vasconcellos and Treibert, according to the DOJ.

In addition to the prison term, Vasconcellos, was sentenced to 3 years of supervised release and ordered to pay over $64 million in restitution.

This case is being handled by the Office's White Plains Division.