Truth in sentencing?

When I learned the Streus and Streu Construction were ordered to pay $500,000 in restitution for their bid-rigging scheme, I wondered: To whom?

Certainly, there are victims in this case, including an untold number of companies that legitimately bid on Department of Transportation projects but didn't have the, ahem, edge Streu Construction and Vinton Construction did.

I mean, imagine just the cost of diligently preparing bids on road projects year after year — specifically 1997 to 2004 — in the hope of winning a job.

Seems to me those contractors deserve a little restitution.

And if you're an exec at James Cape, you might be thinking you deserve that and a little retribution too.

But, no, looks like WisDOT's winning this award.

U.S. District Judge Bill Griesbach ordered the Streu defendants to pay $20,000 and Streu Construction to pay $480,000 to WisDOT. Fines were also levied against the two executives and the company, and John Streu and Ernest Streu were also sentenced to federal prison; John Streu received a sentence of one year and a day, and Ernest Streu, five months plus five months of home confinement.

Now, you can argue that the prison sentences aren't long enough, and I'd agree.

But back to the restitution.

From my understanding, the Streu and Vinton execs worked with a former James Cape employee who altered bids to help ensure that Streu or Vinton submitted the lowest one.

Now, I'm not saying it's right, but doesn't that mean WisDOT benefited from the scheme?

At first blush, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Frohling assures that crime does not pay.

While not an exact science, Frohling said restitution was determined by Dr. Donald Brown, an economist in the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division.

Frohling said Brown compared rigged jobs and nonrigged jobs to WisDOT estimates.

"What the economist found was the conspirators — Streu and Vinton — were only able to raise their prices when they were the only bidder," Frohling said.

In the Streus' case, that amounted to three jobs, valued at $5 million. Brown determined that the Streus overcharged WisDOT by 10 percent on those, and 10 percent of $5 million is half a million.

"That was, generally, how it was calculated," said Frohling, adding that the same process was applied in the Vinton case, with restitution of $1.4 million set.

Frohling did say, though, that justice wasn't blind to the other victims in the case.

"With anything, when you're going back to reconstruct ... it is very difficult, if not impossible, to figure out with any precision what the effect was," he said.

Maybe justice was blind, but at least it was served as best as possible.

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