{"id":15049,"date":"2023-04-05T03:10:49","date_gmt":"2023-04-05T10:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/former-montana-construction-exec-pleads-guilty-in-monopoly-case\/"},"modified":"2023-04-05T03:10:50","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T10:10:50","slug":"former-montana-construction-exec-pleads-guilty-in-monopoly-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/former-montana-construction-exec-pleads-guilty-in-monopoly-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Montana construction exec pleads guilty in monopoly case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/essential.construction\/files\/membership-default-internal\/\" class=\"memberhide\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/01\/20220718_175041000_iOS.jpg\" alt=\"-\"><\/a><br\/><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<h3 class=\"standard-heading\"><span><span><span><span><span><span>Dive Brief:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>The ex-president of a Billings, Montana-based paving and asphalt construction firm was sentenced last week for his role in a scheme to reduce competition for public projects in four states.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>Nathan Nephi Zito, 44, received three years of probation with six months of home detention and was fined $27,000. He pled guilty in October in the U.S. District Court of Montana to one felony count of attempted monopolization in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>He admitted to trying to monopolize highway crack-sealing services in Montana and Wyoming, <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-mt\/pr\/former-construction-company-president-sentenced-attempting-monopolize-highway\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>according to Jesse Laslovich<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span>, U.S. attorney for the state of Montana. In January 2020, Zito approached a competing contractor, seeking to form a \u201cstrategic partnership.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 class=\"standard-heading\"><span><span><span><span><span><span>Dive Insight:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>In the partnership Zito sought to create, the competitor would stop bidding for projects administered by Montana and Wyoming. In exchange, Zito would no longer pursue projects in South Dakota and Nebraska. Zito also offered to pay the competitor $100,000 as additional compensation, according to Laslovich\u2019s report.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>\u201cIf Zito had succeeded in his efforts to game the competitive bidding process, there would have been a dangerous probability he would have eliminated competition and been free to raise prices or limit production, which would have negatively impacted the American taxpayer,\u201d Laslovich said in the release.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>The charges against Zito resulted from an investigation conducted by the Department of Justice\u2019s Antitrust Division\u2019s San Francisco Office, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the District of Montana and the Department of Transportation Office of the Inspector General as part of the Justice Department\u2019s Procurement Collusion Strike Force.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>In November 2019, the Justice Department created the force to combat antitrust crimes and related fraudulent schemes that impact government procurement, grant and program funding at all levels of government. Cases the strike force has investigated and prosecuted include bid- rigging schemes for projects like a <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/news\/third-conspirator-pleads-guilty-caltrans-bid-rigging-scheme\/637689\/#:~:text=Bill%20R.,conspirators%2C%20the%20Justice%20Department%20said.\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Caltrans bid rigging and bribery scheme<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span> in 2022 and <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/former-engineering-executive-sentenced-rigging-bids-and-defrauding-north-carolina-department\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>another in North Carolina<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Z&amp;Z Asphalt, which lists Zito as a co-founder, declined a request for comment.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5143531171910809\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- News - Bottom -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5143531171910809\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"8320848692\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/news\/montana-construction-pleads-guilty-monopoly-wyoming-dakota-nebraska\/646757\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">This article was originally posted at Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dive Brief: The ex-president of a Billings, Montana-based paving and asphalt construction firm was sentenced last week for his role &#8230; <a title=\"Former Montana construction exec pleads guilty in monopoly case\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/former-montana-construction-exec-pleads-guilty-in-monopoly-case\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Former Montana construction exec pleads guilty in monopoly case\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[457],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-dive","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15049\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}