A Petal man is facing up to 40 years in prison and/or several million dollars in criminal fines after pleading guilty to three counts of fraud-related charges of fleecing at least 100 schools in Mississippi through false sports equipment contracts.
According to documents dated May 13 from United States District Court in Jackson, Charles Ferrell Trimm pleaded guilty in that court to the following federal charges:
- Conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition and restrain trade by rigging bids with a company (known as Company 1, as all the business names are redacted) and other co-conspirators for sports equipment and apparel and related services for schools in the Southern District of Mississippi and elsewhere, beginning at least in or around August 2020 and continuing through at least in or around November 2022.
- Conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition and restrain trade by rigging bids with Company 2 and other co-conspirators for sports equipment and related services for schools in the Southern District of Mississippi beginning at least in or around May 2021 and continuing through at least in or around February 2023.
- Conspiracy to commit wire fraud for sports equipment and related services for schools in the Southern District of Mississippi and elsewhere beginning at least in or around May 2016 and continuing through at least in or around May 2023.
The maximum penalty for the first two charges is 10 years imprisonment and at least $1 million in fines for each count, while the maximum penalty for the third charge is 20 years imprisonment and at least $250,000 in fines.
The first two counts are violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, a federal statute that prohibits activities which restrict interstate commerce and competition in the marketplace. The first federal act in the United States that outlawed monopolistic business practices, the Sherman Antitrust Act makes illegal any contract, conspiracy, or combination of business interests in restraint of foreign or interstate trade.
On the first two charges, the document states that Trimm, as an employee of Company 5, acted with several unnamed co-conspirators to agree in advance of some bids of the sports equipment as to which co-conspirator would win the bid, and agreed to provide and submit complementary bids – in other words, higher-priced bids – to schools.
“The conspiracy to rig bids affected at least ($258,389) of sales to Company 5 from at least (23) procurements,” the document states. The defendant received commission payments from his employer, Company 5, based on some of these sales.
“The business activities of (Trimm) and his co-conspirators … were within the flow of, and substantially affected, interstate trade and commerce. For example, helmets that were sold as a part of the conspiracy were manufactured outside Mississippi and sold and transported into Mississippi.”
On the wire fraud charge, Trimm and his co-conspirators allegedly underwent a scheme to obtain money from school sports procurements awarded to Company 5 by submitting false bids to schools in the Southern District of Mississippi and elsewhere, in violation of United States code.
“(The conspirators) prepared and submitted false bids showing higher prices that purported be on behalf of Company 3 and Company 4 (and) submitted false bids on bidding forms that appeared to be from Company 3 and Company 4, though they were in fact not,” the document states. (They also forged an individual’s) signature on many of the false bids, submitted and caused to be submitted at least 396 false bids to schools relating to school sports equipment, and … used wire communications in interstate commerce to communicate with co-conspirators and submit bids.
“Defendant's material misrepresentations through the submission of these false bids affected at least ($2.09 million) of sales to Company 5. The defendant received commission payments from his employer, Company 5, based on some of these sales.”
Trimm and the co-conspirators also asked others to scan false bids and submitted those using separate email addresses, and asked school officials to print false bids.
The names of the schools or school districts affected by Trimm’s actions are not revealed in court documents.
Trimm, who is represented by antitrust lawyer Roxann Henry, will be sentenced at a later date.
