AG took 2 years to charge NDOT workers in Las Vegas theft ring

A pattern of suspicious tire purchases by the state Department of Transportation helped investigators uncover at least $35,000 in theft — and the possibility of hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional taxpayer losses.

The results of the 2014 investigation were so well-known within the department that workers dubbed it “Tiregate” because the employees suspected in the theft had resigned or been fired but not prosecuted, according to half a dozen current and former workers.

But the attorney general’s office finally filed criminal charges against the former workers in December — two months after the Las Vegas Review-Journal requested case documents and more than two years after investigators discovered the theft.

District engineer Mary Martini, head of the Las Vegas office where the thefts were alleged to have occurred, said transportation officials for months had been asking the attorney general for updates on the case.

Read more: https://www.reviewjournal.com/investigations/ag-took-2-years-to-charge-ndot-workers-in-las-vegas-theft-ring/