The trial got underway Monday for an employee of TVA contractor Stone and Webster charged with bilking TVA of some $2 million.
Prosecutor Perry Piper told Judge Curtis Collier the trial of Walter Cardin may take about four weeks.
Cardin was charged in September 2011 with nine counts of fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to engage in monetary transactions in criminally derived funds.
TVA entered into a contract for the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Athens, Ala., with Stone and Webster Construction Inc. to provide maintenance, modification, and construction. Stone and Webster was to record the injury rates and total number of injuries and would receive a safety bonus if the injury rates were below a certain level. In 2002, there were a number of work-related injuries at Browns Ferry, and Stone and Webster replaced safety managers and hired Cardin as the medical case manager.
In 2003, Stone and Webster stopped using TVA's on-site medical office, and contracted with an outside medical provider to create its own on-site medical office. There, Cardin used different standards and procedures for classifying and recording injuries. Cardin was accused of falsely reporting injuries, and therefore wrongfully inflating the safety bonus received by Stone and Webster.
In 2008, Stone and Webster settled a claim relating to the issues involved in the case with TVA by paying a substantial sum, but not admitting wrongdoing.