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(Newser)
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A San Francisco federal judge on Wednesday sentenced StarKist Co. to pay a $ 100 million fine for a canned tuna price setting 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 that a fine of $ 100 million could result in his bankruptcy because millions of additional civilian casualties could be inflicted on him. But Chen said the court had concluded that the company had the assets, the ability to borrow money to pay the fine and legal recourse to request an extended payment period in case of financial problem, according to the AP. 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. Last year, StarKist had agreed to plead guilty to setting the price of the crime in the context of widespread collusion including Bumble Bee Foods and Chicken of the Sea. The project was unearthed when the attempt to buy Bumble Bee by Chicken of the Sea in 2015 failed, 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 fined $ 25 million, $ 111 million less than prosecutors had announced. The three companies face a myriad of lawsuits from wholesalers, food service companies and retailers.
(Read more tuna stories.)
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