Guilty to Price-Fixing: It Could Pay $ 100 Million

StarKist Co. will plead guilty to a felony charge of price-fixing and pay a fine, the U.S. Department of Justice said yesterday in a statement. The fine, which would be subject to approval of the plea deal, could be as high as $ 100 million. It is part of a multi-year criminal investigation involving all the big canned tuna sellers in the U.S.

To form StarKist executive and two train Bumble Bee executives also pleaded guilty to form StarKist CEO Chris Lischewski pleaded not guilty.

The canned seafood company is one of three giants that dominates some of the $ 1.7 billion market in the US: Bumble Bee Foods LLC, which pleaded guilty to similar charges last year, paying $ 25 million, and Chicken of the Sea , owned by Thai Union Group.

The price-fixing took place at least between November 2011 and December 2013, the Justice Department alleges.

It evolved because of a New York food crisis, which was attempted against Thai Union, which was attempting to buy Bumble Bee, alleging that the market was artificially mischievous. The merger never happened.

Chicken of the Sea cooperated with the rest of the world, which along with other retailers, had by that time brought its own suit.

StarKist has issued a statement in which it says it cooperates with the investigation and will amend its ways.

In 2015, the company settled a class-action lawsuit for under-filling its cans from 2009 to 2014, offering affected consumers $ 25 in cash or $ 50 worth of presumably full tuna cans.

"Our citizens' confidence in the ability to buy goods within a market is key to sustaining an efficient and fair economy," Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett, San Francisco FBI, said in the DoJ statement. "This investigation stands as a symbol of our commitment to holding corporations and senior leadership accountable and ensuring that we will not be tolerated."