New indictments issued in investigation into Oklahoma highway project bidding

An Oklahoma erosion-control construction company and its chief executive are the latest to be named in an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into bid-rigging on highway projects across the state. A federal grand jury in Oklahoma City has indicted Sioux Erosion Control Inc., a BG Biscoe vice president and another employee in an alleged price-fixing conspiracy involving more than $100 million in transportation contracts over nearly six years.

Court documents unsealed in early August allege that the Weatherford, Oklahoma-based contractor, Biscoe, and another employee, Randall Shelton, conspired with others in the erosion control industry to raise and maintain prices between September 2017 and April 2023.

Earlier this year, four other people in the industry — including another Sioux Erosion employee and a former top state transportation engineer turned contractor — pleaded guilty to conspiracy. They are awaiting sentencing.

Federal authorities say the conspiracy involved a small group of specialist subcontractors who inflated prices and rigged bids for ongoing highway projects and fixed prices for turf, an important raw material in erosion-control work.

The government says it has divided the state into geographic regions for each, part of a plan described as “egregious” by Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.

As we read in the department’s statement, the accused “manipulated tenders for specific projects by deliberately submitting bids at inflated prices or by outright refusing to submit bids.”

The group’s executive director, Bobby Stem, said the Oklahoma chapter of Associated General Contractors offered to help authorities with the investigation after the matter came to light in the local industry.

“This is not the way the industry behaves. We are dealing with public money and we take that responsibility very seriously,” Stem says.

Biscoe and the other employee could face up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine if found guilty of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. If convicted, Sioux Erosion Control could be fined $100 million. No tentative trial date has been announced for the defendants.

According to his Facebook profile, Biscoe is the husband of Sioux Erosion Control CEO Allison Biscoe, who was not named in the indictment. The company is registered with the state as a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise owned by women and is a certified Women Business Enterprise.

The company is still in business, and calls to Biscoe’s phone number have not been returned.