Ex-company executive gets prison term in bid-rigging plot

September 10, 2022 GMT

NEW BERN, N.C. (AP) — A former engineering company executive has been sentenced to one year and six months in prison for his role in a bid-rigging scheme to defraud the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Brent Brewbaker, who worked for Contech Engineered Solutions, also was sentenced on Thursday to two years of supervised release after his prison term, court records show. U.S. District Judge Louise Wood Flanagan in New Bern, North Carolina, ordered Brewbaker to pay a $111,000 fine and report to prison in approximately three months.

A federal jury convicted Brewbaker of conspiracy and fraud charges in January after a weeklong trial. Brewbaker conspired to rig bids for aluminum structure projects funded by the state of North Carolina between 2009 and 2018, according to prosecutors.

Contech agreed to pay a $7 million fine plus more than $1.5 million in restitution to the state transportation department after the company pleaded guilty to charges of bid rigging and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, a Justice Department news release says.