New York Gas Pipeline Inspector Michael Vasconcellos Sentenced to 30 Months for Fabricating Hundreds of Safety Test Results, Ordered to Pay Over $64 Million in Restitution
Michael Vasconcellos, 45, of Mahopac, New York, a safety inspector for natural gas pipelines, was sentenced on October 28 in the Southern District of New York to 30 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to fabricate hundreds of gas pipeline safety test results provided to a regulated utility company, resulting in the utility incurring more than $60 million in remediation costs. In addition to the prison term, Vasconcellos was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay over $64 million in restitution.
"Michael Vasconcellos fabricated gas pipeline test results designed to prevent gas leaks and explosions, putting the lives of New Yorkers at risk," said U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald. "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."
According to the Indictment, Superseding Information, and public court filings, between at least in or about 2016 and 2023, Vasconcellos and his co-conspirator, Liam Treibert, were supposed to perform safety inspections of welds on natural gas pipelines being installed throughout New York City and Westchester County. The inspections, which included radiographic (x-ray) non-destructive testing of each weld, were necessary to ensure the welds did not contain defects that could cause gas leaks or explosions; a defect left unrepaired before a pipeline entered service could have led to critical failures.
The two repeatedly engaged in a practice known in the industry as "radaring" — radiographing the same weld twice and passing off one copy of the films as having come from a second weld that was never inspected. In total, hundreds of welds across the utility's pipelines installed throughout the Bronx and Westchester County between about 2016 and 2023 were affected, and the utility has spent more than $64 million remediating the effects of the fraud.
Vasconcellos pleaded guilty on April 21, 2026, to a superseding Information charging him with one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud, before U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel, who also presided over the sentencing. The case was investigated by the Offices of the New York State Inspector General, the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation, and special agents of the U.S. Attorney's Office, and is being handled by the Office's White Plains Division, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys David A. Markewitz and Jay McMahon in charge of the prosecution.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于纽约 Manhattan Foley Square 的 Thurgood Marshall 美国法院大楼（纽约南区联邦地区法院所在地）。照片：Beyond My Ken 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse at Foley Square in Manhattan, home of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Photo: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
