A scheme that disrupted the essence of fair competition in the construction of ALDI stores across southern Illinois and Missouri has landed two men with sentences and a hefty restitution bill. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Illinois announced the sentencing of a former ALDI executive and an Illinois contractor for their roles in a rigged bidding operation designed to siphon off millions through fraudulent construction contracts.
Louis R. Ross, Sr., 64, the former Director of Real Estate for ALDI's O'Fallon, Missouri division, has been sentenced to 24 months in prison, and Donald E. Schniers, 73, owner of C. Juengel Company, has been placed on 3 years probation, both are to pay more than $2.8 million in restitution to ALDI for defrauding the company through scheming throughout a span stretching from February 2014 through March 2018, as per the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Illinois, they finagled the bidding process in favor of Schniers' business, shaking the pillars of what should have been a competitive and impartial marketplace.
The duo conspired to ensure Schniers' company would consistently emerge as the victor in the bidding for ALDI's construction projects, even going so far as to fabricate bids from competing companies to create the illusion of a competitive environment and inflate costs. U.S. Attorney Rachelle Aud Crowe, in a statement made by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Illinois, pounded the gravity of the offenses saying, "Louis Ross exploited his position to personally profit by rigging the bid process, granting projects to Donald Schniers’ construction company and ultimately defrauding ALDI out of millions of dollars."
The crime was nailed down through the collective efforts of the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which anchored their commitment to policing graft and protecting the citizens from the fallout of such misdeeds. Assistant U.S. Attorney Zoe Gross with the Southern District of Illinois and Trial Attorney Andrew Rosa from the Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, took the lead in the prosecution, thus bringing the curtains down on a malfeasance-ridden collusion.
