CALIFORNIA EXECUTIVE PLEADS GUILTY TO CONSPIRE TO RIG BIDS FOR CONTRACTS TO SELL MARINE PRODUCTS

One November 17, 2008, Andrew Barmakian, the former president of a California-based marine products company, pled guilty and agreed to serve a sentence and pay a criminal fine for his role in a conspiracy to rig bids for contracts for marine products purchased by the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Coast Guard, and other private companies.
Mr. Barmakian took part in the conspiracy from December 2000 to May 2003 by allocating customers and rigging bids for contracts to sell plastic marine pilings. Plastic marine pilings, resembling telephone poles, are reinforced synthetic pilings used as substitutes for traditional timber pilings in port and pier construction projects and other marine applications.

Mr. Barmakian is the fifth executive to plead guilty in this ongoing investigation. In June 2008, Charles N. Kriss, a former New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services engineer, pled guilty to conspire to commit bribery by accepting bribes from a co-conspirator company supplying New York City with plastic marine pilings for the project. In May 2007, Robert Taylor, a former employee of a Virginia based marine products firm, pled guilty to multiple felonies, including a charge of conspiring to bribe Mr. Kriss. Mr. Taylor’s company charged an extra 10 percent to purchase orders worth approximately $400,000 and used this money to pay Mr. Kriss. In January 2008, a court sentenced Mr. Taylor to serve two years in prison and a pay a fine of $300,000.

Andre Barlow
(202) 589-1834
abarlow@dbmlawgroup.com