A company that won millions in D.C. contracts reserved for local small businesses was actually run by a Georgia resident out of a one-desk District office he rarely if ever visited, according to a lawsuit filed this week by D.C.’s attorney general.
The lawsuit also accuses Sequoia Row Consulting, which holds cleaning and maintenance contracts at District government facilities, of cheating its workers out of overtime, sick pay and benefits for years as the company was gaming a program meant to help locally owned small businesses.
Attorney General Brian Schwalb (D) filed the suit in D.C. Superior Court against the company and its owner and chief executive, Paul Lawrence. The complaint alleges Lawrence, who lives in Marietta, Ga., has for years fraudulently claimed his company qualifies as a D.C.-based, resident-owned business. Schwalb said in a statement that the misrepresentation “stole opportunities from real local businesses.”
“This lawsuit puts companies on notice that if they attempt to profit by cheating programs intended to support and grow our local economy, or by depriving workers of wages and benefits they earn, they will be held accountable,” Schwalb said.
Lawrence did not immediately return messages seeking comment on Friday.
The deception began a decade ago, according to the complaint. In 2016, Lawrence applied for certification from the Department of Small and Local Business Development (DSLBD), listing an address on F Street in Northwest Washington.
After a department official arrived for a site visit and found no one there, Lawrence told them by phone that the business had moved to Southeast Washington, the lawsuit says. A week later, a DSLBD analyst visited the location on Good Hope Road, and the office had only one desk and one chair, though paperwork listed Lawrence and his wife as co-managers. The analyst recommended denying the application. Lawrence then told the agency his wife actually played no role in managing the company, the lawsuit says. DSLBD approved the certifications.
According to the lawsuit, the original F Street address was a “virtual office” operated by Servcorp, a company that lets customers “run your business from anywhere” while offering the location as a listing for their professional address plus mail forwarding.
Sequoia Row’s current address in Northwest Washington is another Servcorp location, where the company now leases an office with one desk and one chair, the lawsuit says. Building access records show Lawrence didn’t enter the building once between December 2024 and November 2025, and a senior project manager entered only nine times during that period, according to the lawsuit.
Using the fraudulent certifications, the lawsuit says, Sequoia Row won at least 32 contracts that only certified local businesses were eligible to receive. In at least five procurements, the company’s certifications gave it preference points in the bidding process. Between May 2018 and March 2026, the District paid the company more than $16 million total, with at least $13 million coming from the set-aside contracts.
The lawsuit also accuses the company of systematically cheating its janitorial workers by classifying them as independent contractors rather than employees, denying them overtime pay, paid sick leave, prevailing wages, and benefits they were legally owed.
After a U.S. Department of Labor investigation, Sequoia Row in July 2024 reclassified its workers, and the company paid $232,511 in back wages — but only for the single contract federal investigators examined. Workers on the company’s other contracts never received back pay, according to the complaint.
By misclassifying workers, the lawsuit alleges, Sequoia Row also dodged contributions to D.C. programs for workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, and paid family leave.
The District is seeking damages under the False Claims Act, restitution for affected workers, and civil penalties. An initial hearing in the case is scheduled for August.
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