ATLANTA – Four concrete suppliers have been sentenced to prison for participating in a long-running bid-rigging scheme in the Savannah area.
James Clayton Pedrick, Gregory Hall Melton, John David Melton, and Timothy “Bo” Strickland were charged in federal court four years ago with conspiring to fix prices, rig bids, and allocate jobs from the sale of ready-mix concrete used in residential, commercial, and public projects.
Pedrick and Strickland pleaded guilty, while the two Meltons were convicted earlier this year in U.S. District Court in Savannah.
According to court documents, the defendants colluded to submit bids charging uncompetitive prices and coordinated the issuance of price-increase letters to customers between 2010 and 2016.
Gregory Hall Melton was sentenced Thursday to 41 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine. John David Melton was sentenced to a prison term of 26 months, along with three years of supervised release and a fine of $10,000.
The court had previously sentenced Strickland to five months in prison and ordered him to pay a $150,000 fine. Pedrick was sentenced to one year of probation.
Two companies also were involved in the conspiracy. Evans Concrete was ordered to pay a $2.7 million fine, while Argos USA previously paid a fine of $20 million as part of a deferred prosecution agreement.
“These sentences reflect the egregious nature of rigging bids for materials like ready-mix concrete, which are essential to the American economy,” said Manish Kumar, deputy assistant attorney general with the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The Antitrust Division and its law enforcement partners will hold accountable those who seek to exploit the critical need for these materials to harm consumers.”
The FBI’s Washington field office, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General, and U.S. Postal Service investigated the case.