WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Justice charged a Toledo, Ohio, construction company manager today with conspiring to rig bids on construction and repair contracts involving heat resistant materials, such as brick and concrete, used to line furnaces and boilers. The so-called refractory linings are purchased by refineries, auto manufacturers, and chemical and utility companies.

In a one-count felony charge filed in U.S. District Court in Toledo, Ohio, the Department's Antitrust Division charged Loren Angel, a former branch manager for Northern Refractories and Insulation Co., with conspiring to rig bids on refractory lining construction and repair contracts from January 1993 through December 1995.

According to the charge, Angel conspired with others to suppress and eliminate competition for refractory lining construction contracts. Angel and others carried out the conspiracy by discussing their prospective bids with one another before those bids were submitted to the project owners or general contractors.

Anne K. Bingaman, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division, and Emily M. Sweeney, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said the charge resulted from an ongoing investigation of bid rigging and related violations in the refractory lining construction industry.

The case was filed by the Antitrust Division's Philadelphia Field Office with the assistance of the Toledo branch office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The maximum penalty for an individual convicted of a violation of the Sherman Act is three years in prison and the greatest of $350,000, twice the pecuniary gain the individual derived from the crime or twice the pecuniary loss caused to the victims of the crime.

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