Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: New charges in asphalt paving collusion case signal rough road ahead for paving exec, (Jul 31, 2024)
Organizations Mentioned:Chicago Office | U.S. Department of Justice | U.S. Postal Service
By Christopher Longo, J.D.
The charges follow the company president’s guilty plea for his role in asphalt paving contract bid-rigging in the State of Michigan.
On July 30, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division filed a criminal information against David A. Coppola, vice-president and part-owner of Al’s Asphalt Paving Company, Inc., charging him with conspiring to rig bids for asphalt paving contracts in the state of Michigan. The information against Coppola charges him with two counts of conspiracy to restrain trade under the Sherman Act. The charges follow Al’s Asphalt’s President and co-owner, Edward D. Swanson’s January 4, 2024 guilty plea in a separate bid-rigging case involving the same alleged bid-rigging conspiracies. Coppola is the latest individual to be charged in the investigation by the Antitrust Division’s Chicago Office. The Antitrust Division, assisted by investigators from the Department of Transportation and the U.S. Postal Service, has been probing bid-rigging schemes within the asphalt paving services industry in Michigan (U.S. v. Coppola, No. 2:24-cr-20404-DML-EAS (E.D. Mich. July 30, 2024)).
Conspiracy with ASI. The first count of the information charges that as early as March 2013 until as late as November 2018, Coppola and Al's Asphalt “engaged in a combination and conspiracy,” with Pontiac, Michigan-based asphalt paving company Asphalt Specialists LLC (ASI) by agreeing to rig bids for asphalt-paving contracts in the State of Michigan. The information details that under the conspiracy, Coppola and his co-conspirators—including ASI—communicated with each other by agreeing in advance which paving services vendor would win a given competition for a contract award. The co-conspirators coordinated each other’s bid prices and submitted “intentionally non-competitive bids” so that the agreed-upon winner would win the asphalt paving services contract. The information states that the conspiracy Coppola and the co-conspirators engaged in was per se unlawful, and constituted an “unreasonable, restraint of interstate trade and commerce in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act.”
In October 2023, Daniel Israel, the former president of ASI, pleaded guilty to one count of violating Section One of the Sherman Act, for his role in the conspiracy. The maximum penalty for individuals who violate Section One of the Sherman Act is 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine.
On June 6, 2024, Swanson of Al’s Asphalt pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to restrain trade under the Sherman Act, and was sentenced to two years of probation, and a fine of $36,577.48. A sentencing memorandum filed Swanson’s and Al’s Asphalt’s counsel prior to sentencing had requested a probationary sentence, noting that Swanson had made “poor choices,” but that he regretted them, was remorseful, and accepted responsibility for his actions. Swanson had previously been interviewed and provided “information about various aspects of the bid-rigging conspiracies, including specific practices and terminology used by the conspirators, and specific instances of illegal conduct, which was corroborated by other witnesses and documentary evidence.”
Conspiracy with Allied. The second count of the information charges that from as early as June 2013 until as late as June 2019, Coppola and Al's Asphalt conspired with Clarkston, Michigan-based asphalt paving company, F. Allied Construction Company Inc. (Allied), to rig asphalt paving bids. The information states that during the aforementioned time period, Al’s Asphalt and Allied provided paving services to customers in Michigan, including “asphalt paving projects such as large driveways, parking lots, and private roadways,” and that Coppola, Al’s Asphalt, Allied, and other co-conspirators conspired to “suppress and eliminate competition by agreeing to rig bids for contracts to provide asphalt paving services in the State of Michigan,” in violation of Section One of the Sherman Act.
In August 2023, Allied, its President Andrew Foster, and Vice President of Estimating Kevin Shell pleaded guilty for their roles in the conspiracy.
The Case is No. 2:24-cr-20404-DML-EAS.
Judge: Lawson, D.
Attorneys: Ruben Martinez, Jr., Office of the Attorney General, for the U.S.
News: Antitrust AntitrustDivisionNews MichiganNews