Contech Engineering Solutions LLC pleads guilty to bid rigging and fraud scheme and pays $7 million criminal fine

A North Carolina engineering firm was sentenced after pleading guilty to lengthy conspiracies to rig bids and defraud the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT).

According to court documents, Contech Engineered Solutions LLC (Contech) pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Sherman Act and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud, as charged in a six-count indictment filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina on Oct. 21, 2020. Contech admitted to conspiring to rig bids to the NCDOT and conspiring to defraud the NCDOT in order to fraudulently obtain contracts for infrastructure projects. The conspiracies started at least as early as 2009 and continued at least until March 2018. Former Contech executive Brent Brewbaker was charged as a co-defendant in the same six-count indictment, and he remains under indictment. Contech pleaded guilty to one count of bid-rigging under Section One of the Sherman Antitrust Act and one count of conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud. Contech agreed to pay a criminal fine of $7,000,000 and restitution to the NCDOT in the amount of $1,533,988. Contech has also agreed to cooperate with the department’s ongoing investigation.