720 ILCS 5/33E-3 – Bid-Rigging
This law makes it a crime to cheat or work together unfairly when bidding for government contracts.
This law says that it is illegal for people or companies to secretly agree on bids so that one of them wins a government contract unfairly. Anyone who does this can face a serious punishment and may not be allowed to do business with the government for five years.
Sec. 33E-3. Bid-rigging. A person commits bid-rigging when they knowingly make an agreement with another person, who is or could be a competitor, about how bids are made or not made to any part of state or local government. They must have the intent that the agreement will help them or someone else win a government contract, and they do one of the following:
- Share or receive private information about prices or other important parts of a bid that normally would not be shared with a competitor in a fair and independent bidding process.
- Submit a bid that has a price or terms that they never meant to have accepted.
Sentence: Bid-rigging is a Class 3 felony. Anyone convicted of bid-rigging or a similar crime anywhere in the United States cannot make contracts with the state or local government for 5 years after the conviction.A company will not be banned from government contracts because of an employee’s conviction if that employee no longer works there and either:
- The company has been officially found not guilty, or
- The company proves to the government that no director, officer, or top manager told, allowed, or helped the employee commit the crime.
Contact us online or call (314) 900-HELP to talk with a Southern Illinois criminal defense lawyer.
