A jury convicted Gregory and David Melton in the U.S. District Court in Savannah, Georgia, for their role in a conspiracy to fix prices, rig bids and allocate markets for sales of ready-mix concrete in Georgia and South Carolina.
The conspiracy, which began as early as 2010 and continued until about July 2016, involved coordinating price-increase letters to customers, allocating specific jobs in the coastal Georgia area and submitting bids to customers at collusive and noncompetitive prices.
This investigation resulted in five criminal convictions and one deferred prosecution agreement. Defendants James Pedrick, Timothy Strickland and Strickland’s company, Evans LLC, previously pleaded guilty as a part of the same conspiracy.
Pedrick’s former employer, Argos USA LLC, previously entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Antitrust Division, admitted to its participation in the conspiracy and agreed to pay a $20 million criminal penalty.
“Concrete is essential to our nation’s infrastructure,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.
“Customers expect to receive fair value for construction materials – not to enrich unscrupulous vendors who collude to unfairly increase their profits,” said U.S. Attorney Jill E. Steinberg for the Southern District of Georgia.
“Today’s verdict shows the determination of the FBI and our partners to hold accountable those who interfere with a free marketplace for consumers,” said Assistant Director in Charge David Sundberg of the FBI Washington Field Office.
“Bid rigging and fraud schemes are serious criminal actions that adversely impact the competitive contracting marketplace,” said Special Agent in Charge Joseph Harris of the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (DOT OIG), Southern Region.
Violating the Sherman Act, which is a federal criminal antitrust statute, is a felony. The maximum penalty for individuals convicted of violating the Sherman Act is 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine.
The fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime if either amount is greater than the statutory maximum fine.
A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
