The losing bidder for a contract to run the state’s 18 highway service plazas says that recently released text exchanges show that the decision to award a 35-year lease to a foreign company was tainted by glaring conflicts of interest.

In a letter sent by Waltham-based Global Partners to MassDOT’s board of directors, Global Chief Legal Officer Sean Geary writes that information received by the company following a public records request shows that the board’s June selection of Dublin-based Applegreen as their service plaza operator was “compromised by prohibited ex parte communications and undisclosed conflicts of interest.”

“Proceeding with Applegreen would not only cost the Commonwealth nearly $900 million in guaranteed rent, but it would also knowingly ratify a process that we believe

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