US: Contractors indicted in bid-rigging investigation

The founders of a well-known Oakland construction company, the son of an Oakland councilman, a former state Veterans Affairs official and other Bay Area contractors have been indicted by the federal government in construction bid-rigging schemes.

Federal prosecutors said Friday that two founders of Turner Group Construction and Taj Reid, the son of Oakland City Councilman Larry Reid, conspired to defraud the Department of Energy on a Lawrence Berkeley Lab renovation project in 2013.

The US attorney’s office also obtained an indictment against Pleasant Hill resident Eric Worthen, a former official with the California Department of Veterans Affairs, who is accused of working with Reid to take $12,000 worth of bribes from the undercover “developer.” It’s unclear if Reid was working under anyone’s employ during the alleged schemes.

Reid and the Turners are accused of offering to submit a high bid to a Lawrence Berkeley Lab modernization project in 2013 so that the “developer” could win the project.

Reid is charged with two counts of bribery and two counts of conspiracy; Worthen is charged with three bribery counts; and the Turners are each charged with one conspiracy count.

Full Content: East Bay Times

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