By Bryce Mayer, North Vernon Plain Dealer & Sun
Lee’s Ready Mix and Trucking faces a possible $10 million fine or more for its involvement in a price-fixing scandal.
A federal grand jury indicted the North Vernon-based concrete firm, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.
If found guilty, the firm must pay a fine equal to $10 mllion or the full amount of its alleged gain or victims’ alleged loss, whichever is greater, according to the Justice Department.
On May 13, Larry Lee, former president of Lee’s Ready Mix, agreed to plead guilty to price-fixing charges, to pay a $70,000 fine and serve eight months in prison.
Lee's Ready Mix is accused of conspiring to fix the price of ready-mixed concrete sold in Jennings, Jackson and Bartholomew counties, according to the indictment filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis.
The indictment charges that Lee’s agreed with conspirators to price increases from February 2003 to June 2004. The firm sold at least $7 million during that span of ready-mixed concrete that was affected by the alleged price increases, the indictment said.
The indictment said that Lee’s Ready Mix is charged with carrying out a price-fixing conspiracy with others by:
• Engaging in discussions regarding the prices at which each would sell ready-mixed concrete.
• Agreeing during discussions to specific price increased for concrete and to the timing of the increases.
• Issuing price annoucements and-or price quoations in accordance with the agreements reached.
• Selling concrete according to those agreements at collusive and noncompetitive prices.
• Accepting payment for concrete sold at the agreed-upon collusive and noncompetitive prices.
Lee, 48, is the son of North Vernon businessman Lester Lee who owns Lee’s Ready Mix. Larry Lee resigned from the firm for unspecified reasons last year. He has not yet begun his prison sentence.
Lester Lee said his company's future is “stable.” He declined to comment further on the advise of Lee's Ready Mix and Trucking's attorneys.
Reportedly, other concrete and related firms are under investigation by the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division’s Chicago field office in conjunction with the Indianapolis office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“The indictment demonstrates the Antitrust Division’s resolve to aggressively prosecute price-fixers,” said Scott D. Hammond, U.S. deputy assistant attorney general.
© 2002 The Plain Dealer & Sun