The owner of a Springdale construction business defrauded a mall development company on two West Coast projects in 2006 and 2007, according to federal prosecutors.

Robert E. Crawford, age unavailable, of Trafford, then president of R.E. Crawford Construction, paid $766,000 to an executive with Simon Property Group Inc. to select his company for projects in Seattle and Laguna Hills, Calif., prosecutors say. Crawford made the payments to Abby Inc. of Carmel, Ind., a separate company in which the executive was president, according to prosecutors.

Crawford allegedly conspired with his project manager to inflate invoices submitted for the work. He is charged with wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, three counts of preparing false tax returns and two counts of filing false tax returns.

There was no attorney listed for Crawford in court records.His home phone has been disconnected and his office phone was out of service. A representative at the Sarasota, Fla., office for the company couldn’t be reached for comment.

In a 2008 civil lawsuit, Simon Property Group claimed Crawford, his company and other defendants defrauded Simon during the two projects.

Mark Palombaro, a former senior vice president of Simon Property Group and president of Abby Inc., and his company agreed to pay Simon Property Group $776,000, according to court documents.

The remaining defendants apparently settled in a separate agreement, but the terms of the agreement aren’t included in court documents, according to the case record at Pittsburgh federal court.

Brian Bowling is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-325-4301 or bbowling@tribweb.com.

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