NEW YORK, NY (August 28, 2025) — Two safety inspectors have been charged with wire fraud for allegedly fabricating hundreds of test results on natural gas pipelines installed throughout New York City and Westchester County, authorities announced.
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton and New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang unsealed an indictment charging Liam Treibert and Michael Vasconcellos with the scheme to defraud a regulated utility company, identified as Utility-1 (but sounds like Con Edison).
Treibert was arrested in North Carolina and will be presented in Raleigh federal court. Vasconcellos was arrested in New York and will be presented in White Plains federal court.
SEE: Indictment
“As alleged, Liam Treibert and Michael violated the trust placed in them to ensure the safety of natural gas pipelines that were being installed throughout New York City and Westchester County,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “They lied about having performed hundreds of inspections and then covered up those lies with fraudulent paperwork. Their actions put the lives of New Yorkers at risk. The safety of New Yorkers is of paramount importance to our Office.”
“When deliberate misconduct – as alleged here – puts entire communities at risk, those responsible must face swift and decisive consequences,” said New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang. “Today’s arrests, made in partnership with the Southern District of New York, demonstrate my agency’s unwavering commitment to protecting critical infrastructure and pursuing accountability on behalf of all New Yorkers.”
Between at least 2016 and 2023, Treibert and Vasconcellos were supposed to perform safety inspections of welds on natural gas pipelines. Those inspections were necessary to ensure that the welds did not contain defects that could cause gas leaks or explosions.
Treibert and Vasconcellos lied about having inspected hundreds of welds that they never actually reviewed and created fraudulent records to cover up what they had done. As a result, Utility-1 paid for hundreds of sham inspections and were deceived by Treibert and Vasconcellos into thinking that its pipelines had passed critical safety tests that Treibert and Vasconcellos never performed.
As part of the pipeline installation process, Utility-1 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.
During the period alleged, Treibert and Vasconcellos, while performing radiographic testing for Utility-1, repeatedly engaged in a practice referred to in the non-destructive testing industry as “radaring.” Radaring typically involved radiographing the same weld twice and then passing off one copy of films as having come from a second weld. For instance, a radiographer might radiograph Weld A twice, and then claim that the second set of films are of Weld B, even though the radiographer never inspected Weld B.
In total, hundreds of welds across Utility-1’s pipelines installed throughout the Bronx and Westchester County between 2016 and 2023 were affected by radaring engaged in by Treibert and Vasconcellos. And although Treibert and Vasconcellos did not actually inspect those welds, invoices for those inspections were submitted to Utility-1. Utility-1 paid those invoices through, among other methods, bank transfers.
Treibert, 30, of Wendell, North Carolina, and Vasconcellos, 44, of Mahopac, New York, are each charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The maximum potential sentence in this case is prescribed by Congress and provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by a judge.
Clayton praised the investigative work of the Offices of the New York State Inspector General and the special agents with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
This case is being prosecuted by the Office’s White Plains Division. Assistant U.S. Attorneys David A. Markewitz and Jay McMahon are in charge of the prosecution.
The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
This article was drafted with the aid of Grok, an AI tool by xAI, under the direction and editing of Robert Cox to ensure accuracy and adherence to journalistic standards.