Firm to Pay $8 Million in Bid-Rigging Case

One of the nation’s largest milk suppliers, Borden Inc., agreed Thursday to pay $8 million to settle charges that it rigged bids in milk sales to schools, hospitals and an Air Force base in Texas.

The Justice Department filed similar charges Thursday against Preston Dairy Inc. in Texas and Oklahoma. A third company, Maola Milk & Ice Cream Co., was indicted Wednesday in North Carolina.

Justice Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona said the charges arose from a crackdown by the department’s antitrust division on bid-rigging in sales of dairy products to public institutions.

“We estimate that the cost to consumers could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” she said.

So far, 37 corporations and 41 people have been convicted, and fines of $35 million and civil damages of more than $7 million have been imposed, the department said.