A former executive of Contech Engineered Solutions LLC (Contech) was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment yesterday in New Bern, North Carolina, for his participation in bid-rigging and fraud schemes targeting the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT).

Following a week-long trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina in January, a jury convicted Brent Brewbaker, a former Contech executive, for participating in conspiracies to rig bids and submit false certifications of non-collusion for more than 300 aluminum structure projects funded by the state of North Carolina between 2009 and 2018. Evidence showed that Brewbaker instructed a co-conspirator to submit non-competitive bids to NCDOT and to hide his bid rigging and fraud by varying the amount of inflated bids submitted. He also made clear to a co-conspirator that he would hide illegal conduct by deleting text messages he received about the conspiracy.

“The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, along with our other federal law enforcement partners, secured a victory today in our fight against bid-rigging and collusion,” said Executive Special Agent in Charge Kenneth Cleevely of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS-OIG). “The USPS-OIG will vigorously investigate those who would engage in harmful anticompetitive practices, and we continue to ask for the public’s assistance in identifying and reporting those engaged in this type of activity.”

The Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal I Section prosecuted this case, which was investigated with the assistance of the USPS-OIG and the DOT-OIG. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina also provided support throughout the investigation and trial.