The president of a metal fabrication and manufacturing company pleaded guilty on Feb. 5, to a conspiracy to rig bids for maintenance, repair, and operations contracts affecting United States military installations, earning his company more than $8.5 million dollars in rigged procurements.
According to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Thomas C. Rollins, of Wilmington, North Carolina. Between at least 2015 and 2022, Rollins conspired with other individuals and companies to suppress and eliminate competition by rigging bids for the procurements administered by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), which were awarded to subcontractors through a competitive bidding process. Rollins and his co-conspirators coordinated their submission of rigged bids by agreeing in advance which co-conspirator would submit the lowest pricing and instructing each other how to price “comp” or “cover” bids. In the plea agreement, Rollins admitted that the volume of commerce attributable to him and related to the conspiracy was approximately $8.47 million.
“For seven years, this defendant deliberately chose to cheat instead of compete, harming the Department of War and the American people in the process,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Omeed A. Assefi of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The Antitrust Division and its partners in the Procurement Collusion Strike Force are laser focused on detecting and prosecuting those who seek to tilt the scales in their favor at the expense of American taxpayers and warfighters.”
“As the criminal investigative arm of the Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service remains steadfast in its commitment to safeguarding the integrity of the Department’s acquisition process,” said Special Agent in Charge Christopher Dillard of DCIS’s Mid-Atlantic Field Office. “When individuals conspire to rig bids and eliminate fair competition, they erode taxpayer trust and jeopardize the readiness of our armed forces. Today’s outcome makes clear that this conduct will not be tolerated. DoD contracts must be awarded based on merit, consistent with the best interests of national defense.”
Rollins pleaded guilty to one felony count of restraining trade by conspiring to rig bids, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. The maximum penalty for individuals is 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine.
A sentencing hearing has not been scheduled in this case. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DoD-OIG) is investigating this case. The Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal Section is prosecuting the case.
The Justice Department’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF) is a joint law enforcement effort to combat antitrust crimes and related fraudulent schemes that impact government procurement, grant and program funding at all levels of government – federal, state and local. To learn more about the PCSF, or to report information on bid rigging, price fixing, market allocation and other anticompetitive conduct related to government spending, go to www.justice.gov/procurement-collusion-strike-force .