DENVER-
A second company has been indicted on accusations its executives conspired to rig bids for natural gas pipeline construction projects in the San Juan Basin area in Colorado.
A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted B&H Maintenance & Construction Inc., based in Eunice, N.M., and two of its executives.
The indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court in Denver, alleges the company, vice president and regional manager Jon Paul Smith, and marketing manager Landon R. Martin conspired with each other and with another corporation and individual to submit noncompetitive, rigged bids to BP America Production Co. in 2005.
It also accused Smith of trying to persuade a witness to lie to federal investigators and to the grand jury.
In July, Flint Energy Services Inc. and one of its executives, Kenneth L. Rains, agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to constrain trade by rigging bids to BP. The company was ordered to pay a $150,000 fine. Rains was awaiting sentencing.
A man who answered the phone at B&H said no one was available to comment Tuesday evening.
The indictment alleges the defendants designated which company would submit a low bid and which company would submit a higher, complementary bid for BP projects, prosecutors said.
The defendants were accused of submitting bids that they had agreed on in advance and of trying to hide the conspiracy.
Companies convicted of bid rigging can be fined up to $100 million, while individuals can be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison, plus a $1 million fine.
The fines can be doubled or be raised to an amount that is twice the loss suffered by the victim, if that amount tops the statutory maximum fine.
The indictment did not estimate alleged losses.
Witness tampering is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
