Balfour Beatty Hires Lawyers to Probe Military-Housing Claims

(Bloomberg) -- U.K. infrastructure company Balfour Beatty Plc appointed a U.S. law firm to investigate claims that its military-housing business falsified records relating to maintenance work at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma.

The allegations emerged as part of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s investigation into accusations that London-based Balfour and four other developers provided unsafe and unsanitary housing to U.S. service personnel. Warren is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Military Personnel Subcommittee.

Balfour’s communities division has hired Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP as outside counsel to work alongside the U.S. Air Force and other authorities in investigating the matter, the company said in an emailed statement.

“We take the allegations in relation to Tinker very seriously as they would contravene our company-wide code of conduct,” it said, adding that the 1,200 staff at the communities unit “are dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of conduct and service” at military sites.

Work order fees from the Tinker base last year contributed 0.2% of earnings at Balfour Beatty Communities, according to the company, or $66,000.

Balfour Beatty shares traded 1.5% lower at 235.20 pence as of 10:43 a.m. in London, valuing the company at 1.62 billion pounds ($2 billion).

The Financial Times reported earlier that Balfour had hired legal counsel.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Jasper in London at cjasper@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Andrew Noël

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