03/28/2025

Executive Pleads Guilty to a Seven-Count Indictment Two Weeks Before Trial, Admits to Longstanding Antitrust and Wire Fraud Conspiracies Affecting Wildfire Services

Office of Public Affairs U.S. Department of Justice

The owner of a contractor company that provided fuel truck services to the U.S. Forest Service’s wildfire fighters pleaded guilty to a seven-count indictment yesterday for his role in schemes to rig bids, allocate territories, and commit wire fraud over an eight-year period. Kris Bird, 62, pleaded guilty to all charges against him two weeks before trial, with no assurances from the government as to the sentence prosecutors will recommend to the judge. The plea follows a judicially authorized wiretap investigation that led to the indictment of two executives in December 2023. Both executives pleaded guilty and are now scheduled to be sentenced in June 2025.

As set out in the factual basis filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, Bird admitted to conspiring with Ike Tomlinson, 61, and others to rig bids and allocate territories in the market for wildfire-fighting fuel truck services for certain dispatch centers of the U.S. Forest Service’s Great Basin wildfire dispatch region between March 2015 and March 2023, in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Bird further admitted to conspiring to commit wire fraud during the same period, and to committing five acts of wire fraud. At the change-of-plea hearing, Bird also admitted to the forfeiture allegations in the indictment.