A long-running scheme to rig bids and fix prices for ready-mix concrete in the Savannah, Georgia, area has ended with three men sentenced to prison, one sentenced to probation and one corporation fined $2.7 millions.
Gregory Hall Melton and John David Melton were convicted earlier this year, while the other three – James Clayton Pedrick, Timothy “Bo” Strickland and Evans Concrete LLC – had already pled guilty.
All five defendants were indicted in September 2020 in the U.S. District Court in Savannah. Court documents reveal initial federal investigations into the scheme, which ran from 2010 to 2016, were conducted as early as 2011.
The indictment alleged the individual defendants submitted rigged bids at collusive and noncompetitive prices, issued coordinated price-increase letters to customers and were paid for ready-mix concrete sold through contracts and on projects affected by the conspiracy. Pedrick was a “conduit” in the scheme, exchanging price-increase letters and other info among the conspirators.
Evans Concrete, a 17-location Georgia concrete provider, was founded in 1948, and its website currently lists Strickland as its president.
The defendants received the following sentences:
- Gregory Melton: 41 months in prison, three years of supervised release, to pay a $50,000 fine.
- John Melton: 26 months in prison, three years of supervised release, to pay a $10,000 fine.
- Strickland: five months in prison, to pay $150,000 fine.
- Pedrick: one year of probation.
- Evans Concrete: to pay a $2.7 million fine.
Ready-mix concrete producer Argos USA, based in Alpharetta, Georgia, separately accepted a deferred prosecution agreement, under which it paid a $20 million fine, admitted its involvement in the scheme and cooperated with the investigation and prosecution. Argos USA became involved in the conspiracy in October 2011 after acquired the assets of a ready-mix concrete supplier in the Southern District of Georgia and employing two of the individual defendants.
“Concrete is an essential material in construction projects, with prices set in the free market by the forces of supply and demand,” said U.S. Attorney Jill E. Steinberg for the Southern District of Georgia. “However, the defendants in this case for several years illegally rigged the system to benefit themselves at the expense of customers and are being held accountable for their conduct.”
