Attorney General Phil Weiser has entered into a settlement with a would-be contractor for the Colorado Convention Center’s expansion, who will pay $650,000 and contribute at least that amount to a coronavirus-related construction project in response to bid-rigging allegations.

“We will hold accountable those companies and individuals that undermine the competitive bidding process when they bid for public construction projects and put millions of taxpayer dollars at risk,” said Weiser in a statement.

As laid out in the settlement, the city of Denver engaged Trammell Crow as a project management company for expansion of the Colorado Convention Center in 2018. Trammell Crow was responsible for preparing bid documents and communicating with entities seeking to compete for the construction contract, one of whom was Minneapolis-based M.A. Mortenson Company.

Weiser’s office alleges that Trammell Crow provided some non-public information about the bidding process to Mortenson that it did not divulge to other companies. At the same time, Mortenson provided Trammell Crow with details about design and sample scenarios.

“Trammell Crow’s representative used the information provided by Mortenson for his work on behalf of the City and presented the Mortenson analyses and calculations as his own,” the settlement alleges, adding that this coordination “jeopardiz[ed] the fairness of the procurement process.”

Once the city found out about the collusion, it fired Trammell Crow and was forced to delay the approximately $233 million project.

Mortenson and the four individual employees named in the settlement denied any wrongdoing or illegal conduct.

The Colorado Antitrust Act makes it illegal to “contract, combine, or conspire with any person to rig any bid, or any aspect of the bidding process.” As part of the settlement, Mortenson will implement antitrust training for employees in Colorado.

Under the agreement, Mortenson will pay $650,000 to the state’s Department of Law. It will also provide an equal amount of donated services toward the construction of a COVID-19-related project. The Denver metro area will receive priority for Mortenson’s services, and the company will absorb any costs from change orders up to 15% of the total $650,000 in-kind contribution.

The settlement also imposes several other conditions on the company, including the requirement to disclose the existence of the agreement when bidding on public construction projects in Colorado for the next two years and to make a presentation at an industry forum on ethics and antitrust compliance. For the next three years, the company will also have to make an annual ethics presentation to a college or university in Colorado.

The agreement does not bind the city of Denver to drop any investigation or lawsuit that it may bring against Mortenson. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock thanked Weiser for the agreement, saying that it “not only secures our process and creates opportunities for our local women- and minority-owned businesses, it will also support our entire community during this public health crisis.” Mortenson will take steps to encourage minority- and women-owned businesses to participate in public construction projects in the state, because those entities were potentially harmed under the bid-rigging activity.

The attorney general’s investigation of Trammell Crow is ongoing.