March Antitrust Bulletin - 2014

Fourteen-Year Sentence in EPA Superfund Case A New Antitrust Record

On March 3, 2014, Gordon D. McDonald was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment for his "central role" in bid-rigging, kickback and fraud conspiracies related to two U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites in New Jersey. This is the longest prison sentence ever imposed for an antitrust crime, and is more than double the  previous record set late last year. A jury previously found McDonald guilty on 10 counts of an indictment alleging, in part, that McDonald and his co-conspirators agreed to rig bids and allocate subcontracts for wastewater treatment supplies and services to one of the Superfund sites. According to William Baer, assistant attorney general of the DOJ's Antitrust Division, the sentence "reflects the seriousness of the crimes committed [and] shows that if you engage in bid-rigging, fraud and kickback schemes your illegal actions will result in a longer prison sentence."