June 25, 2025 | Washington, D.C.
A former vice president of a Michigan-based asphalt company has been sentenced to six months in prison and fined $500,000 for his role in a long-running bid-rigging conspiracy that defrauded public and private entities seeking asphalt paving services across the state.
Bruce F. Israel, the former vice president of Asphalt Specialists LLC (ASI), admitted to conspiring with rival companies Al’s Asphalt Paving Company Inc. and F. Allied Construction Company Inc. to manipulate contract bids over several years. Israel is one of seven individuals, along with three companies, charged in the Department of Justice’s ongoing criminal antitrust investigation into collusion in the asphalt paving industry—a probe that has so far yielded over $8.7 million in fines.
“Bid rigging is cheating, plain and simple,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division. “The defendant and his co-conspirators cheated their customers and betrayed the basic principles of fair competition, all for personal and corporate gain.”
From 2013 to 2021, Israel and his co-conspirators coordinated bids to ensure a pre-selected company would win contracts while others submitted intentionally non-competitive offers. The scheme created the illusion of competition while allowing the conspirators to control who secured lucrative paving jobs in Michigan. Israel’s involvement included two overlapping conspiracies—one with Al’s Asphalt from 2013 to 2018 and another with Allied from 2017 to 2021.
Law enforcement officials emphasized the broader implications of the sentencing.
“This result underscores our firm resolve to dismantle schemes that undermine competitive processes,” said Anthony Licari, Special Agent in Charge at the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General, Midwestern Region. “Anyone choosing corporate greed over open competition should take note.”
Tammy Hull, Inspector General for the U.S. Postal Service, added, “We will continue to pursue and bring to justice those companies that engage in anticompetitive practices for personal gain.”
Israel’s former employer, ASI, pleaded guilty in January 2024 and was fined $6.5 million in August. Several other former ASI executives have also pleaded guilty, including Daniel Israel and Timothy Baugher, for their roles in separate legs of the conspiracy.
The DOJ’s Antitrust Division’s Chicago Office is prosecuting the case with investigative support from the Offices of Inspectors General for the Departments of Transportation and the Postal Service.
Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-vice-president-asphalt-paving-company-incarcerated-bid-rigging
