Fraudulent Certification of Fracked Gas Pipeline Welding Results in Two Arrests in Western Penna.

Two arrested in pipeline fraud in Lawrence County

From the Article by Debbie Wachter, New Castle News, May 5, 2023

The state Office of the Attorney General filed criminal charges in Lawrence County against two men accused of falsifying paperwork and endangering others while working on a natural gas pipeline.

Joseph Berkich, 45, of Daisytown, Washington County, is charged with falsifying industrial radiologist certification documents to obtain X-ray examination work on a natural gas pipeline project for EnTech Energy of New Castle, then conspiring with Welton Darl Shipe to cover-up his deception.

Shipe, 61, of Baker, West Virginia, a quality assurance manager on the project, is charged with providing false statements to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection about the pipe’s condition and repairs that he commissioned surreptitiously.

The men are related by marriage and knew each other when they conspired to commit the crimes charged this week, according to information from the attorney general’s office.

The pipeline involved was a 34-mile stretch of the Mark West Liberty Pipeline that transports natural gas liquids such as propane, normal butane, isobutane and higher molecular weight hydrocarbons from natural gas processing plants that are located in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, to fractionation facilities in Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to the court papers and information from a news release from the attorney general’s office.

EnTech Energy, located at 105 Mahoning Ave., manufactures components used in natural gas pipelines. A company principal informed state agents Berkich was the lowest bidder on a Mark West Energy Project. He and Steel City Gamma, his former company, began working for EnTech around Aug. 16, 2019, and were fired as a subcontractor around Nov. 1 that year. Berkich’s company performed six jobs for EnTech, the report said. Those jobs were to have been part of a Mark West pipeline located in West Virginia.

A certified welding inspector had notified the agents that September he found a total of five bad welds Berkich deemed acceptable. Two were at the EnTech facility in New Castle, one was at a staging area before being placed in a field and two were on a job site right of way, awaiting installation, the report said. A sixth weld had to be shot in the field after installation, the report said.

Berkich is charged with six counts of forgery, two counts of theft by deception, receiving stolen property, tampering with public records, five counts of tampering with records or identification and one of conspiracy to commit tampering and risking a catastrophe.

Shipe is charged with conspiracy to commit tampering with public records, tampering with public records or identification, risking catastrophe, and unsworn falsification to authorities and statement under penalty.

They were taken into custody and arraigned Thursday afternoon by District Judge Melissa A. Amodie, who released them on unsecured bonds of $15,000 each, meaning if they fail to show for their court proceedings, warrants will be issued for their arrests and they will be liable for the entire bond amount.

This case was investigated by the Office of Attorney General with support from the US Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General. All charges are accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Criminal complaints against both men detail their alleged offenses. While employed as a quality assurance manager at EnTech Energy, Shipe hired Berkich as an industrial radiographer to X-ray and interpret the welds on sections of the pipeline to evaluate their integrity and Berkich failed to provide the necessary certifications prior to starting the work, according to the paperwork.

After EnTech repeatedly asked for the paperwork, Berkich provided certifications with multiple forged signatures. It was later discovered Berkich was neither trained nor certified to perform that type of work.

As a result of Berkich’s lack of certification, EnTech was forced to hire another firm to re-examine all of the welds that Berkich had previously evaluated. That firm determined that some of the materials used by Berkich were not up to industry code and that Berkich signed off on a total of seven bad welds that threatened the integrity of the project and endangered the public, the state agency contends.

Further investigation revealed Shipe later directed a welder and Berkich to come in on a weekend — when the project inspector was not on site — to cut out bad welds and repair them without reporting the repairs. Reporting repairs is critical because the applied heat can cause the metal to become brittle leading to increased risk of leaks and the potential for the weld to become an ignition source, the paperwork states.

The investigation into the allegations began in April of 2020. The paperwork states that in addition to X-ray costs, a total of six bad welds were found that Berkich had deemed satisfactory. Repair costs for EnTech energy resulted in $20,000 in losses to repair the bad welds, the complaints state. As a result, the customer, Mark West Energy, severed all ties with EnTech and canceled six or seven upcoming jobs with that company, the court papers state.

“These men allegedly put lives at risk by carelessly ignoring certifications and safety assurance requirements in an effort to profit from pipeline work,” Attorney General Michelle Henry said in a news release issued Friday. “Unfortunately, we have seen recently the devastating environmental impacts of such carelessness, and my office is committed to holding accountable those who put the environment and our citizen’s health and lives at risk. Thanks to the hard work of the Office of Attorney General’s environmental crime section and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General, these men will now need to answer for their actions in a court of law.”