Summary

Vinton Construction Co. (Vinton) of Manitowac, WI and one of its owners, James Maples, were ordered by a U.S. District Court judge in Green Bay, WI to pay a total of $1.8 million in fines and restitution for bid-rigging on approximately $100 million in highway construction contracts from pre-1999 until January 13, 2004. Michael Maples, a co-owner of Vinton is scheduled for sentencing on April 22, 2005. Another firm, Streu Construction Co. of Two Rivers, WI and its owners were sentenced in January 2005 to a combined $1.1 million in fines and restitution, with its executives sentenced to a total of one year and five months in prison stemming from their guilty pleas to the bid-rigging charges. This, investigation, one of the largest DOT fraud cases in Wisconsin, was conducted jointly with the FBI and Department of Justice, with assistance from FHWA and the Wisconsin DOT.