Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: Justice Department school sports equipment bid rigging charges net guilty pleas, (Mar 28, 2025)

By Peter Reap, J.D., LL.M.

Four individuals and one company agreed to the pleas involving schemes affecting hundreds of schools.

Four individuals and one company pleaded guilty in three separate U.S. District Courts for their roles in various bid rigging and wire fraud conspiracies which targeted the sale of sports equipment to public schools throughout Mississippi and Louisiana, the Justice Department announced. The schemes affected sales to hundreds of public schools in both states. These bid rigging guilty pleas closely follow the Department’s announcement earlier this week that a second executive pleaded guilty to bid rigging involving wildfire fighting services.

Charges. Patrick Joseph Stewart, Maurice Daniel Bowering Jr., Robert Tucker Craig, Robert Douglas Heflin, and Wilder Fitness Equipment Inc. entered into conspiracies in which they agreed to submit complementary bids to public schools to obtain procurements for sports equipment and related services, the government alleged. The longest of the charged conspiracies lasted more than a decade.

For example, the Criminal Information charging Bowering states that the conspiracies charged affected at least $4,557, 402.14 of sales to his employer, a retail and distribution company engaged in selling sports equipment in Mississippi. Those sales involved at least 579 procurements to at least 50 schools. Bowering received commissions from his employer based on those sales. The conspiracy engaged in by Bowering and his co-conspirators was a per se unlawful, and this unreasonable, restraint of interstate trade in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, according to his indictment.

Bowering and his con-conspirators, in furtherance of the conspiracy:

• Agreed in advance of the bids which co-conspirator would win;

• Agreed to provide and submit complementary (intentionally higher-priced bids;

• Submitted complementary bids to schools; and

• Received procurements on behalf of his employer for sports equipment where complementary bids were submitted.

Guilty pleas. The individuals and company pleaded guilty between February and March of 2025, the agency reported. Patrick Joseph Stewart of Hattiesburg, Mississippi pleaded guilty to one count of bid rigging and one count of wire fraud affecting sales to at least 69 public schools in the Eastern District of Louisiana. In the Southern District of Mississippi, Maurice Daniel Bowering Jr., of Hattiesburg, Mississippi pleaded guilty to five counts of bid rigging affecting sales to at least 50 public schools on March 6; and Robert Tucker Craig of Starkville, Mississippi pleaded guilty to three counts of bid rigging affecting sales to at least 38 public schools and one count of obstruction for the deletion of related evidence on Feb. 19. Lastly, Robert Douglas Heflin of Starkville, Mississippi pleaded guilty to two counts of bid rigging affecting sales to at least 31 public schools on March 4; and Mississippi company Wilder Fitness Equipment Inc., pleaded guilty to two counts of bid rigging affecting sales to at least 60 public schools on Feb. 20, in the Northern District of Mississippi.

Enforcer comments. “School sports are integral to the development and upbringing of American children. From these opportunities, they learn the benefits of teamwork and open competition. Bid rigging, on the other hand, is the antithesis of American meritocracy. It is also patently unlawful,” said Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Omeed A. Assefi of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The defendants here selfishly targeted school sports programs, depriving students of an opportunity to thrive. The Antitrust Division’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force has zero tolerance for bid collusion schemes, particularly when they target children.”

“The defendants rigged bids for school sports equipment which resulted in an unfair playing field,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Patrick Lemon for the Southern District of Mississippi. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi is committed to working with our law enforcement and Antitrust Division partners to protect school athletics and taxpayer dollars.”

“Bid rigging and the collusion that makes it possible drive up prices for taxpayers and will not be tolerated,” said U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner for the Northern District of Mississippi. “We will continue our commitment to work with the FBI and to root out corruption.”

News: Antitrust AntitrustDivisionNews MississippiNews LouisianaNews