Bribery and Bid-Rigging

January 4, 2021

Georgia-based ready-mix concrete company Argos USA LLC entered into a settlement admitting that between 2010 and 2016 it conspired to fix prices, rig bids, and allocate the market for ready-mix concrete in Georgia and elsewhere.  As part of a deferred prosecution agreement, Argos will pay a $20 million criminal penalty, institute a compliance program, and cooperate in ongoing investigations.  The unlawful actions included coordinated issuance of price-increase letters, the allocation of specific ready-mix jobs in the coastal Georgia area, the imposition of fuel surcharges and environmental fees, and the submission of bids at collusive and noncompetitive prices.  DOJ

December 21, 2020

Government contractor Schneider Electric Buildings Americas Inc. will pay a total of $11 million to resolve criminal and civil claims that it overcharged the government on eight separate energy savings performance contracts under which the company was to install energy upgrades including solar panels, LED lighting, and insulation, in federal buildings.  The company admitted to wrongdoing including the disguising of unauthorized design costs by charging them to unrelated contract components and the receipt of kickbacks from subcontractors on the ESPCs. $9.3 million of the settlement resolves civil liability under the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Act; $1.7 million is denominated as criminal forfeiture.  DOJ

November 3, 2020

Illinois-based charter school management company Concept Schools, NFP, will pay $4.5 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by rigging the bidding process for E-Rate contracts with its network of charter schools between 2009 and 2012 so that its preferred technology vendors received contract awards, despite the fact that they provided equipment at higher prices than those approved by the FCC for equipment with the same functionality.  DOJ

October 30, 2020

Eleven asphalt and paving companies operating in West Virginia, including West Virginia Paving Inc., Kelly Paving Inc., American Asphalt & Aggregate Inc., and eight related companies, entered into a settlement to resolve claims that they conspired to monopolize the asphalt and paving market.  The alleged anti-competitive conduct increased the cost of road paving paid for by the state and local entities within the state.  The settlement, valued at $101.3 million, includes a cash payment of $30.35 million and an additional $71 million in credits that can be applied by the government to work over the next seven years, including work that is already completed but not yet paid for.  WV

September 15, 2020

In a resolution valued at $51.7 million, defense contracting firm QuantaDyn Corporation agreed to plead guilty and enter into a civil settlement to resolve claims and charges arising from its scheme to bribe an Air Force contracting official to provide procurement-sensitive information and steer government contracts for training simulators to the company.  The government contented that QuantaDyn’s bribery scheme caused a prime contractor to submit false invoices to the United States.  QuantaDyn will pay $37.8 million in restitution, a criminal penalty of $6.3 million, and forfeit $7.1 million; the company CEO and majority owner, William T. Dunn, Jr., will pay $500,000.  DOJ

August 6, 2020

South Carolina-based consumer loan company World Acceptance Corporation has been ordered to pay $21 million to resolve allegations of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).  According to the SEC, the company’s former Mexican subsidiary, WAC de Mexico S.A. de C.V., paid more than $4 million in bribes to Mexican officials from 2010 to 2017 in order to secure the ability to make loans to government employees, then recorded the payments as legitimate business expenses.  SEC

June 22, 2020

A former employee of Schneider Electric Buildings America, Bhaskar Patel, has been sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to forfeit over $2.5 million in connection with a five-year bribery scheme involving several federal energy savings performance contracts.  Patel had pleaded guilty to soliciting and receiving over $2.5 million in bribes from eight Schneider subcontractors on the contracts, which included a $24.7 million project for the USDA in California, two projects amounting to $34.4 million for the GSA in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, a $42.4 million project for the VA in the Northeast, a $70 million project for the Coast Guard in Puerto Rico, and a $114.3 million project for the Navy in California.  USAO VT

June 10, 2020

Alutiiq International Solutions LLC (AIS), an Alaskan Native Corporation and government contractor, has agreed to pay $1.25 million and enter into a non-prosecution agreement to settle allegations of violating the Anti-Kickback Act in connection with a multi-million dollar General Services Administration (GSA) contract to modernize the Harry S. Truman Federal Building in Washington, D.C.  Beginning in 2010, a project manager formerly employed by AIS allegedly accepted kickbacks from a subcontractor in exchange for steering more work to the subcontractor, while also fraudulently billing GSA for a non-existent on-site supervisor and overinflating costs from its subcontractor.  AIS and its parent company, Afognak Native Corporation, cooperated fully with the investigation and have since engaged in extensive remedial actions.  DOJ

June 10, 2020

A South Korean engineering company has been ordered to pay $68 million in criminal fines, civil penalties, and restitution after pleading guilty to defrauding the U.S. Army in a 2008 contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars.  According to the press release, SK Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. (SK) submitted documents to the Army that were doctored to conceal $2.6 million in payments to a fake construction company that had bribed an Army Corps of Engineers official on SK’s behalf.  The company also took steps to hamper investigations by U.S. and Korean officials by withholding and destroying relevant documents, attempting to tamper with a potential witness, and failing to properly discipline the employees involved with the bribery scheme.  SK was suspended from participating in certain contracts with the U.S. government in 2017; with this plea agreement, it will undergo another three years of probation.  DOJ