DENVER—Two companies accused of promising not to compete against each other in auctions of four natural gas leases on federal land have each agreed to pay $275,000 under a proposed settlement of antitrust allegations, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
The U.S. Department of Justice said this is the first time it has challenged an alleged anticompetitive bidding agreement for mineral rights leases. Its investigation stemmed from a whistleblower lawsuit.
Federal prosecutors filed their own antitrust complaint in federal court Wednesday against Gunnison Energy Corp., SG Interests I Ltd. and SG Interests VII Ltd., along with the proposed settlement. The public has 60 days to comment on the proposed deal, which a judge will then review.
Prosecutors allege Denver-based Gunnison Energy and Houston-based SG Interests agreed in 2005 that only SG Interests would bid on four Bureau of Land Management leases, and that if SG Interests won, it would assign a 50 percent interest in the leases to Gunnison Energy.
That reduced the revenue the auction could’ve generated if the companies had been competitively bidding against each other for the parcels, prosecutors said.
A woman who answered the phone at SG Interests said no one was in the office to comment Wednesday. Gunnison Energy spokesman Brad Goldstein said his company doesn’t believe it did anything wrong but decided to settle to avoid expensive litigation.
Goldstein said the complaint was based on the actions of one employee who violated the law, unbeknownst to the company.
“This individual, who no longer works for the company, cooperated with another company to obtain a particular lease believing he had legal approval to do so. He was dismissed,” Goldstein said. “His dismissal was not to his satisfaction, so went to the DOJ to drum up a whistleblower suit on one lease.”
The former employee didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
