SACRAMENTO - A former Caltrans contract manager and a former contractor were sentenced today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento for their roles in a bid-rigging and bribery scheme involving Caltrans improvement and repair contracts.
Choon Foo “Keith” Yong, the former Caltrans contract manager, was sentenced to 49 months imprisonment and ordered to pay $984,699.53 in restitution. According to a plea agreement filed on April 11, 2022, Yong and his co-conspirators engaged in a conspiracy from early 2015 through late 2019 to thwart the competitive bidding process for Caltrans contracts to ensure that companies controlled by Yong’s co-conspirators submitted the winning bid and would be awarded the contract.
Yong also pleaded guilty to accepting bribes while working for Caltrans, a California state agency that receives significant federal funding. Yong received bribes in the form of cash payments, wine, furniture, and remodeling services on his home. The total value of Yong's payments and benefits neared $1 million.
William D. Opp, the former contractor, was sentenced to 45 months imprisonment and ordered to pay $797,940.23 in restitution. According to a plea agreement filed on Oct. 3, 2022, Opp engaged in the same conspiracy from early 2015 to at least August 2018. Opp formed a separate construction company, with his wife as the nominal president, to submit sham bids on Caltrans contracts as part of the conspiracy. During his participation in the conspiracy, Opp and co-conspirators provided nearly $800,000 in cash bribes and other benefits to Yong.
Yong and Opp are the second and third co-conspirators to be sentenced in the case. On April 17, 2023, former construction company owner Bill R. Miller was sentenced to 78 months imprisonment and ordered to pay nearly $1 million in restitution.
“These criminals – including a state employee who sought sales commissions for his role in the bid-rigging scheme – put greed and personal gain ahead of the public trust and are being punished accordingly,” said Director Daniel Glad of the Justice Department’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF). “The Antitrust Division and our PCSF partners are on the lookout for those that try to cheat on government contracts.”
“A former Caltrans employee and a contractor have been sentenced today for a conspiracy that cheated a state agency out of taxpayer funds and that, if left unchecked, could threaten to undermine public confidence in the proper functioning of government institutions,” said U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert for the Eastern District of California. “The defendants’ abuse of public trust and the length and breadth of the criminal conduct fully warrant today’s sentences. Bribes have no place in government contracting.”
“All government employees are expected to conduct businesses in accordance with both law and policy to ensure the integrity of those transactions and maintain public trust in the agencies they represent,” said Special Agent in Charge Sean Ragan of the FBI Sacramento Field Office. “No government official should put personal gain ahead of the communities' needs. The FBI is ready to identify, investigate, and disrupt public corruption to maintain the American public’s trust in the institutions designed to serve and protect them.”
Today’s sentencing is the result of a joint investigation that was conducted by the Antitrust Division’s San Francisco office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California, and the FBI’s Sacramento Field Office as part of the Justice Department’s Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF).
