Several federal agents from the Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General raided a Palo Alto Utilities Department building Friday, February 6, 2009, as part of a criminal investigation into the qualifications and certification of city pipeline workers. According to the search warrant, the agents were authorized to seize a list of employees certified to work on the pipelines, their work performance histories and contact information, and examinations they took to receive the certifications. They were to search for evidence of false statements. The agents took seven boxes of documents but made no arrests.

Editor’s note: This investigation was apparently triggered by a whistleblower complaint, and was not the result of a routine state or federal OQ audit.

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