An Oklahoma erosion control construction company and a top executive are the latest targets in an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into bid-rigging on statewide highway projects. 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 transportation contracts state for almost six years.
Court documents unsealed in early August allege Weatherford-Okla.-based contractor Biscoe and another employee, Randall Shelton, conspired with others in the erosion control industry to increase and maintain the prices during the period approximately from September 2017 to April 2023.
Earlier this year, four others in that industry, including another Sioux Erosion employee and a former state transportation engineer turned contractor, slyly pleaded to roles in the conspiracy. They are awaiting the verdict.
Federal authorities say the conspiracy involved a small group of specialized subcontractors who inflated and orchestrated bids for pending highway projects, as well as fixing the price of turf, 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 US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.
The defendants “have rigged bids for specific projects by intentionally submitting high-priced bids or outright refusing to bid,” a department statement said.
The Oklahoma chapter of Associated General Contractors offered to help authorities in the investigation when it became known in the local industry, says the group’s executive director, Bobby Stem.
“This is not how the industry as a whole has behaved. We are dealing with public money and we take this responsibility very seriously,” says Stem.
Biscoe and the other employee face possible 10-year prison sentences and $1 million in fines if convicted of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. If found guilty, Sioux Erosion Control could be fined up to $100 million. An initial court date for the defendants was not announced.
According to his Facebook profile, Biscoe is married to Sioux Erosion Control President Allison Biscoe, who is not listed in the indictment. The company is registered with the state as a Women-Owned Disadvantaged Business Enterprise and is a Certified Women’s Business Enterprise.
The business remains in business and a call to Biscoe was not returned.
