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A federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday sentenced StarKist to pay a $ 100 million fine for a canned tuna price fixing plot involving the three largest companies in the sector.
The Pittsburgh-based company was also sentenced to 13 months of probation. The tuna giant had asked Judge Edward Chen of the US District Court to reduce the fine to $ 50 million, saying a $ 100 million fine could bankrupt him, as millions of Additional civilian casualties may escape him.
But Chen said the court had concluded that the company had the assets, the opportunity to borrow money to pay the fine and legal recourse to request a longer payment period in case financial difficulties.
He ordered the company to pay $ 5 million within 30 days and $ 11 million next year. Starting in 2021, the company will have to pay $ 21 million a year for four years.
Large collusion
StarKist Co. last year agreed to plead guilty crime-fixing charges as part of a wide-ranging collusion that included Bumble Bee Foods and Chicken of the Sea.
"We cooperated with the DOJ during its investigation and took responsibility," said Andrew Choe, president of StarKist, in a statement. "We will continue to conduct our business with the utmost transparency and integrity."
The project was unearthed after the Thai group Chicken of the Sea's attempt to buy the San Diego-based Bumble Bee failed in 2015, according to court records.
Chicken of the Sea executives then alerted federal investigators, who agreed to protect the company from criminal prosecution in exchange for their cooperation.
Bumble Bee Foods pleaded guilty in 2017 to the same charge and paid a fine of $ 25 million$ 111 million less than prosecutors said it should have been. Prosecutors said they feared to end Bumble Bee's financially troubled business and agreed to let the company make interest-free payments for five years.
Scott Meece, StarKist's General Counsel, went to court before sentencing, asking the judge to consider the company's 2,600 employees in the United States.
"These employees have been holding her on the back for a long time," Meece said. "They are worried about what will happen to their work."
Meece said the company is likely to cut and may consider laying off or moving its American Samoa plant to Thailand. SunKist belongs to the South Korean company Dongwon Industries.
More lawsuits in progress
Two former executives of Bumble Bee and one of StarKist also each pleaded guilty to price-fixing charges. None of them has been sentenced.
Former Bumble Bee CEO Christopher Lischewski pleaded not guilty to a charge of pricing.
The three companies face a myriad of lawsuits from wholesalers, food service companies and retailers such as Walmart, Target and Kroger.
"Today's results reflect our determination to aggressively enforce antitrust laws against pricing companies," said Deputy Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Antitrust Division. from the Ministry of Justice. "When a company deceives its customers into the fund, the antitrust division will hold it to account to the extent possible."
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