Contractor under federal investigation after woman allegedly posed as Black owner to get Army contracts

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Federal agents are investigating a Franklin-based construction company after a family member allegedly posed as a Black business owner to get contracts from the U.S. Army, an unsealed search warrant application revealed. 

Prosecutors accused Nikki Platt, owner of Broadway Construction and daughter of Dick Platt, of using her business as a shell company to obtain work for Platt Construction, the warrant application said. In the complaint, Platt claimed she was a Black woman when applying for government contracts set aside for disadvantaged people, though her driver’s license showed her to be a “blond, blue-eyed, white female.” 

Broadway Construction eventually won $7 million in Army contracts for HVAC work, bridge repairs and building renovation between 2019 and 2021, federal officials said. 

The warrant application, filed in July of 2021 in the Eastern District of Wisconsin, sought out information stored by an IT company which both Broadway Construction and Platt Construction used. Information included messages, emails, records, logs and files that may have been deleted but are still available to the provider.

Financial records in the complaint showed Broadway Construction changed addresses multiple times since 2017, including one location at an apartment complex and another at a barbershop in Milwaukee. On Broadway’s website, the company said it worked on several projects at Fort McCoy.