An area company and a sales manager of one of the company’s affiliates pleaded guilty in a statewide bid-rigging scheme involving millions of dollars in contracts from the Ohio Department of Transportation.

A&A Safety Inc., with offices in Beavercreek, was one of five companies named in a report released Tuesday by the Ohio Office of the Inspector General. An A&A affiliate, Quattro Inc., pleaded guilty to felony charges.

State investigators say the companies secured a combined $2.8 million from ODOT from July 2001 and June 2011, in part by steering bids to themselves by submitting bogus quotes, or having subsidiaries of the same company compete on the same project to create the illusion of competition.

This allowed contractors — not ODOT — to control the bidding process and determine the price of public projects.

In many cases, ODOT employees were aware of the practice, often calling one company and asking them to submit multiple bids on behalf of other companies to meet competitive bidding requirements.

“The suppliers involved in this case conspired to illegally control the bidding process to their benefit and to the detriment of Ohio taxpayers,” Ohio Inspector General Randall Meyer said in a statement. “The investigation also revealed that several employees at the (ODOT) were fully aware of what was happening and passively stood by.”

This is the first case in almost three decades involving criminal antitrust charges under the state’s antitrust statute, the Valentine Act.

“Ohioans deserve a competitive marketplace that helps government make their tax dollars work as hard as possible, rather than lining the pockets of unscrupulous vendors,” Attorney General Mike DeWine said in a statement. “This case makes it clear that we will take action against anyone who plots against the competitive process in this state.”

A&A Safety is a traffic control equipment company based in Hamilton County. Bill Luttmer, president of A&A and vice president of affiliated company Quattro Inc., pleaded guilty on Quattro’s behalf in county court Tuesday to felony charges of illegal contracting and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

Luttmer did not return a call seeking comment.

Quattro agreed to pay $32,796 in restitution and $10,000 to offset the cost of the roughly four-year investigation.

A&A sales manager Timothy O’Brien pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor conspiracy against trade charges. O’Brien agreed to pay $4,372 in restitution and $1,500 to cover the cost of the investigation.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol and Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office assisted with the investigation.

More charges are possible, state officials say.

In ODOT District 7, which includes Montgomery, Clark and Champaign counties, A&A Safety and the companies Southeastern Equipment and Rath Builders Supply submitted bids from affiliated companies to sidestep competition, according to the 125-page report.

A&A and Southeastern used the same strategy in ODOT District 8, which includes Butler, Warren and Greene counties.

Investigative records say A&A set up sister companies Quattro, Bain Industries and Bain Enterprises to compete against them and sometimes to act as a pass-through for work geared toward minority vendors.

“A&A Safety controlled the quotes submitted to ODOT in response to its request for three quotes; avoided competition; predetermined which vendor would be awarded ODOT business; and guaranteed A&A Safety would receive the majority of ODOT’s business,” OIG investigators wrote. “As such, A&A Safety – not ODOT – was determining the price to be paid for the product.”

In the Dayton area, one ODOT purchasing agent said he knew that the companies Rath Builders Supply and Fort Defiance Construction were owned by brothers. But he allowed Rath to submit the only quotes from both companies for 25 projects, guaranteeing one of them would get the work.

That employee was suspended for a year and then reinstated during the investigation. State officials say disciplinary action of varying degrees is being considered against other employees.

“Had they been doing their job of making sure that the bidding process was being followed … it would have been very difficult for this to occur,” Deputy Inspector General Carl Enslen said.