U.S. v. Charles Ferrell Trimm

Charles Ferrell Trimm pleaded guilty to two counts of violating 15 U.S.C. § 1 for his role in a scheme to suppress and eliminate competition by rigging bids to obtain procurements for sports equipment and related services for schools in the Southern District of Mississippi and elsewhere. As part of these conspiracies, which began as early as August 2020 and continued until as late as February 2023, Trimm and his co-conspirators, among other things, (1) agreed in advance of some bids which co-conspirator would win the bid; (2) agreed to provide and submit complementary bids (that is, intentionally higher-priced bids) to schools; (3) requested and received complementary bids from co-conspirators, which they then submitted schools; and (4) received procurements for school sports equipment and related services where complementary bids were submitted.

Mr. Trimm also pleaded guilty to one count of violating 18 U.S.C. § 1349 for his role in a related scheme to commit wire fraud to obtain money from school sports procurements awarded by submitting false bids to schools in the Southern District of Mississippi and elsewhere. As part this conspiracy, which began as early as May 2016 and continued until as late as May 2023, Trimm and his co-conspirators, among other things, (1) submitted false bids on bidding forms that appeared to be from certain companies, though they were in fact not; (2) used a certain individual’s identity in furtherance of the fraudulent bid scheme, including by forging that individual’s signature on many of the false bids; (3) submitted and caused to be submitted false bids to schools in connection with requests from schools for bids for school sports equipment; and (4) subverted schools' procurement process in order to obtain payments by the submission of false, noncompetitive bids.