WASHINGTON – An Iowa-based company pleaded guilty today to participating in a price-fixing conspiracy for the sales of ready-mix concrete, the Department of Justice announced. According to a one-count felony charge filed on June 24, 2011, in U.S. District Court in Sioux City, Iowa, VS Holding Co., which formerly operated as Alliance Concrete Inc., a producer of ready-mix concrete with headquarters in Orange City, Iowa, participated in a conspiracy with another ready-mix concrete company to fix prices for ready-mix concrete sold in the northern district of Iowa. The department said the company participated in the conspiracy beginning at least as early as January 2006 and continuing until as late as January 2008. Ready-mix concrete is a product comprised of cement, aggregate (sand and gravel), water and other additives. The concrete generally is produced in a concrete plant and is transported by concrete-mixer trucks to work...