A former sales employee of a manufacturer and distributor of football helmets and other sports equipment has pleaded guilty to his role in three separate conspiracies — two conspiracies to rig bids in violation of the Sherman Act and one conspiracy to commit wire fraud — all related to sports equipment for schools located in Mississippi and elsewhere.
Charles Ferrell Trimm, a former sales employee, conspired with two unnamed sports equipment distributors and numerous individuals to rig bids from August 2020 through November 2022 and from May 2021 to February 2023, respectively. Trimm and his co-conspirators agreed to submit complementary bids to schools located in Mississippi and elsewhere in order to obtain procurements for school sports equipment and related services.
Trimm also conspired with unnamed co-conspirators to commit wire fraud by submitting false bids to schools located in Mississippi and elsewhere from May 2016 to July 2023. As a part of this scheme, Trimm and others used an unidentified individual’s identity without authorization, including by forging the individual’s signature.
“The charged criminal schemes harmed public schools by subverting their procurement processes and providing the false appearance of competition for precious taxpayer dollars,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The Antitrust Division and its partners will continue to protect taxpayers and students across the country by stopping bid rigging and fraud that targets government procurements wherever we find it, including at the state and local levels.”
Trimm faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine for the Sherman Act violation. The fine may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime. If convicted of the fraud charge, Trimm faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a criminal fine and court-ordered restitution.
The Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal Section and the FBI investigated this case as part of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the school sports equipment industry. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
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Key Facts
- State: Mississippi
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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