Business owner pleads guilty to rigging bids for wildfire-fighting equipment
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BOISE — The former owner of multiple contractor companies that provided fuel truck services to the U.S. Forest Service’s wildfire fighters pleaded guilty to multiple felonies on Wednesday.
A news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho says Ike Tomlinson, 60, of Terreton, conspired with co-defendant Kris Bird, 61, of Salmon, and others in at least two conspiracies.
RELATED | Two business owners accused of rigging bids for wildfire-fighting equipment
Both were indicted by a grand jury on one count of felony conspiracy to commit wire fraud, five counts of felony wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy in restraint of trade: bid rigging and territorial allocation.
As part of a plea agreement, Tomlinson pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring to monopolize, rigging bids, and allocating territories in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
In exchange, prosecutors will dismiss the rest of the charges, and are free to argue for a recommended sentence in court.
The agreement comes after a wiretap investigation that led to the indictment of both Tomlinson and Bird in December 2023.
“The defendant rigged prices of their fuel truck services, overcharging the U.S. Forest Service’s wildfire fighters,” said Assistant Director Michael D. Nordwall of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “(Wednesday’s) plea agreement shows there will be serious consequences for executives for conspiring against the federal government. The FBI and our partners are committed to ensuring the American government, and its taxpayers, are not victimized by criminal monopoly schemes.”
Tomlinson’s sentencing has not yet been scheduled.
Background
Tomlinson and Bird, who own competing companies, allegedly conspired to “rig bids and allocate territories,” violating the Sherman Act.
The Federal Trade Commission says the Sherman Act of 1890 outlaws “every contract, combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade,” and any “monopolization, attempted monopolization, or conspiracy or combination to monopolize.”
The indictment says that to secure the best deal for taxpayers and promote free and fair competition, the U.S. Forest Service advertises and runs a bidding process to award certain firefighting-related contracts to qualified small businesses.
These vendors supply fuel trucks, water trucks, communications trailers and more.
According to the felony indictment, Tomlinson and Bird worked together to affect the contracts for forest firefighting services to make the most money possible.
The indictment alleges that from at least in or about February 2014, up to about March 2023, Tomlinson and Bird coordinated their bids to “squeeze” and “drown” competitors, accepted payment for fuel trucks at collusive and noncompetitive daily rates, and tried to conceal their actions.
“This investigation was conducted by the department’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force, which included FBI agents, with judicial authorization, intercepting phone calls between Tomlinson and Bird,” says a release from the Attorney General’s office. “As alleged, Tomlinson and Bird spoke with one another shortly before the deadline to submit bids on fuel truck contracts. During calls quoted in the indictment, they allegedly agreed to rig bids, allocate territories, and target competitors.”