The owners and managers of four Oklahoma erosion control contractors have pleaded guilty to a bid-rigging and price-fixing conspiracy that prosecutors say steered more than $100 million in contracts financed with public funds.
Stanley Mark Smith, owner of a company that operates in Claremore and Catoosa, Okla., pleaded guilty on Feb. 27, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. His request followed similar moves last fall by Roy Henry Heinrich, former owner and officer of an El Reno, Okla.-based contractor; Ryan Ashley Sullivan, owner and business executive based in Lawton, Oklahoma; and James Travis Feazel, former chief operating officer of a Weatherford, Okla., company.
Prosecutors say the four began conspiring in 2017, agreeing to inflate prices on contract lines such as solid flagstone lawns and spread the contracts across Oklahoma by intentionally bidding high or rejecting bids for certain projects.
Sullivan was part of the conspiracy until at least April 2019, Heinrich was part of it until at least July 2021, according to the Justice Department Smith and Feazel continued to conspire until last April. Feazel’s firm targeted more than $50 million in contracts, while Smith’s targeted $42 million worth of contracts and Heinrich’s $7 million in contracts. Prosecutors did not specify the price of the contracts that Sullivan’s company was seeking under the conspiracy.
Court records did not specify the defendants’ companies, or the specific projects they worked on. An attorney representing Sullivan declined to comment. Attorneys representing the other defendants did not immediately respond to inquiries.
The conspiracy targeted publicly funded transportation infrastructure projects, prosecutors said. Many of them were federally funded by the US Department of Transportation.
The Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General and the FBI’s Oklahoma City field office investigated the case. Joseph Harris, special agent in charge of DOT-OIG’s southern region, said in a statement that they will continue to work with law enforcement to restore fairness to the bidding process.
A federal judge will sentence the four defendants. All face up to 10 years in prison and criminal fines of up to $1 million, or twice the proceeds of crime.
