New Indictments Issued in Oklahoma Highway Project Bid-Rig Probe
Prosecutors have indicted an Oklahoma erosion-control contractor and a firm manager as part of an alleged price-fixing and bid-rigging conspiracy for solid slab sodding and other contract line items.
Drawing courtesy of Oklahoma Dept. of Transportation
An Oklahoma erosion-control construction firm and a top executive are the latest to be targeted in an ongoing federal antitrust investigation of bid-rigging on highway projects across the state. A federal grand jury in Oklahoma City indicted Sioux Erosion Control Inc., company Vice President BG Biscoe and another employee in an alleged price-fixing conspiracy that targeted more than $100 million in state transportation contracts over nearly six years.
Court documents unsealed in early August allege that the Weatherford-Okla.-based contractor, Biscoe and another employee, Randall Shelton, conspired with others in the erosion-control sector to raise and maintain prices during the period from about September 2017 through April 2023.
Four others in that sector—including another Sioux Erosion employee and a former top state transportation engineer turned contractor—previously pleaded guilty to roles in the conspiracy and await sentencing.
Federal authorities say the conspiracy involved a small group of specialty subcontractors that allegedly inflated and orchestrated bids on pending highway projects as well as fixed the price for sod—an important commodity in erosion-control work.
The government alleges they divided the state into geographic regions for each, part of a scheme described as “brazen” by Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the U.S. Justice Dept. Antitrust Division.
The defendants “rigged bids for particular projects by submitting intentionally high-priced bids or outright refusing to bid,” says a department statement.
The Oklahoma Associated General Contractors chapter offered to assist authorities in the investigation when it became known in the local industry, says group Executive Director Bobby Stem.
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“This is not how the industry as a whole has behaved. We are dealing with public dollars, and we take that responsibility very seriously,” says Stem.
Biscoe and the other employee face potential 10-year prison sentences and $1-million fines if convicted of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. If found guilty, Sioux Erosion Control could be fined as much as $100 million. No initial court date was announced for the defendants.
According to his Facebook profile, Biscoe is married to Sioux Erosion Control President Allison Biscoe, who is not named in the indictment. The company is registered in the state as a woman-owned Disadvantaged Business Enterprise and is a certified Women Business Enterprise.
The company remains in operation and a call to Biscoe was not returned.
