MILWAUKEE — In August 2016 the FBI raided several businesses on Milwaukee’s northwest side, investigating allegations of government contract fraud.

The FBI at the time stated that the investigations focused on fraud allegations that could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Agents secured evidence out of at least three construction businesses at 55th and Florist.

The companies the FBI were interested in were C3T Inc., a general carpentry contractor that landed more than $200 million in government work, according to FOX NEWS.

Sonag Company Inc. won more than $100 million in work and Nuvo Construction has also made millions.

This past week the federal government confirmed that it has seized $2.2 million as part of an ongoing probe into the Milwaukee company Sonag and its owner suspected of defrauding the government’s minority set-aside contract program, according to a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The seizure of assets by the federal government is part of a continuing investigation that started at least five years ago by the FBI of several Milwaukee-area businesses with ties to Sonag Co., owned by Brian Ganos.

Brian Ganos is not only owner of Sonag Co., he is also a member of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce where it is believed his business opportunities as a minority construction contractor  spring boarded. 

Ganos was a member of the HCCW board of directors and a nephew of the former HCCW CEO Maria Cameron.

Sources familiar with Ganos ties to HCCW CEO Maria Cameron say that without HCCW support, his efforts to obtain minority contracts would have been very difficult.

No charges have been filed in the ongoing probe reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MJS).

However, Ganos is suspected of using the money from ill-gotten federal contracts  to help finance a lavish lifestyle that includes the $72,000 cash purchase of a 2014 Corvette that authorities seized after the August 2016 raid of the headquarters of Sonag located near N. 55th St. and W. Florist Ave. 

The U.S. attorney’s office is also seeking to seize a $700,000 condominium in Winter Park, Colo., reports MJS.