A former sales employee of a sports equipment manufacturer and distributor pleaded guilty today for his involvement in three separate conspiracies. These included two bid-rigging schemes violating the Sherman Act and one conspiracy to commit wire fraud, all targeting schools located in Mississippi and other locations. The conspiracies victimized at least 100 schools.
Court documents reveal that Charles Ferrell Trimm 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. Trimm and his co-conspirators agreed to submit complementary bids to schools in order to secure procurements for school sports equipment and related services.
In addition, Trimm conspired with unnamed co-conspirators to commit wire fraud by submitting false bids to schools from May 2016 to July 2023. As part of this scheme, Trimm and others used an unidentified individual’s identity without authorization, including 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.
U.S. Attorney Todd Gee for the Southern District of Mississippi added, “The conspirators took advantage of schools in Mississippi by rigging bids to affect the prices schools paid for sports equipment.”
Acting Special Agent in Charge Rebecca Day of the FBI Jackson Field Office also commented on the case, stating that “Charles Trimm and his co-conspirators’ actions fraudulently deprived public schools of valuable resources to support students.”
If convicted for the Sherman Act violation, Trimm faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine. If convicted of the fraud charge, he 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 are investigating this case as part of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into bid rigging and other anti-competitive conduct in the school sports equipment industry.
In November 2019, the Justice Department created the Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF), a joint law enforcement effort to combat antitrust crimes and related fraudulent schemes impacting government procurement, grant, and program funding at all levels of government – federal, state, and local.
