CBM Environmental Services Ordered to Pay for Conspiring to Rig Bids

Must pay State of North Carolina $350,434 for conspiring to rig bids on state contracts.

July 31, 2007

WAKE COUNTY NC NEWS -- North Carolina Business Court Judge Ben F. Tennille, has issued an order for CBM Environmental Services and its chief executive officer to pay the State of North Carolina $350,434 for conspiring to rig bids on state contracts. CBM Environmental Services of Fort Mill, South Carolina and its chief executive officer Catherine Ross Bateman were charged with conspiring to rig bids and overcharge taxpayers for environmental cleanup work.

In the law suit filed in April 2003, by Attorney General Cooper and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources alleged that eight firms and their employees illegally conspired to rig bids for a state contract in an effort to increase fees that the state pays to clean sites contaminated by leaking petroleum tanks. The suit also alleged the firms formed an illegal antitrust trade association to direct either a boycott of specific state project bids or a submission of inflated rates, and that the firms lied by swearing they were not collusion to fix prices.

This brings the total amount won in the law suit to more than $1 million by Attorney General Cooper. Other defendants have already paid $735,000 to settle allegations that they conspired to fix prices and rig bids on contracts to clean land around leaky underground storage tanks across North Carolina.

Attorney General Cooper said of the case: "Getting together to fix prices cheated taxpayers and left less money for cleaning our land and water. This ends a case we've pursued for more than four years to protect the taxpayers' money and our environment."

At the time of the original complaint, six firms and six individual employees agreed to change their practices, cooperate in the state's investigation, undergo ethics training and pay $480,000 to settle charges that they colluded to fix prices and lie on bids. In December 2004, one additional firm and three individuals signed agreements and paid the state a total of $255,000.

Approximately 10,000 brownfields across North Carolina have environmental damage from petroleum tanks. The General Assembly in June of 1988, created a trust fund with a portion of gasoline and kerosene taxes and tank fees to pay for brownfield clean-up costs. When tank owners' abandon or fail to clean up the environmental damage, DENR requests proposals from environmental consultants and the trust fund covers the cost using the fund, which takes in $27 million annually. In addition, the state reimburses private landowners who clean land surrounding the brownfields.

Published by:
Rob Cross
mailto:editor@357news.com

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