Posted on 06/20/2020 2:00:26 PM PDT by ransomnote
Former Bumble Bee CEO Sentenced To Prison For Fixing Prices Of Canned Tuna
Christopher Lischewski, former Chief Executive Officer and President of Bumble Bee Foods LLC, was sentenced to serve 40 months in jail and pay a $100,000 criminal fine for his leadership role in a three-year antitrust conspiracy to fix prices of canned tuna, the Department of Justice announced.
Lischewski was charged on May 16, 2018, in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in San Francisco. After a four-week trial in late 2019, he was convicted on the single count of participating in a conspiracy to fix prices of canned tuna. In imposing Lischewski’s 40-month prison sentence, the Court found that Lischewski was a leader or organizer of the conspiracy and that it affected over $600 million dollars of canned tuna sales.
“The sentence imposed today will serve as a significant deterrent in the C-suite and the boardroom,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Executives who cheat American consumers out of the benefits of competition will be brought to justice, particularly when their antitrust crimes affect the most basic necessity, food. Today’s sentence reflects the serious harm that resulted from the multi-year conspiracy to fix prices of canned tuna.”
“This sentence is the result of our commitment to holding corporations and senior leadership accountable for their actions, whether they operate in the food supply industry or elsewhere,” said FBI San Francisco Division Special Agent in Charge, John F. Bennett. “This brings us closer to our goal; allowing our citizens to be able to purchase food in an unbiased market within an efficient and fair economy, free of corporate greed.”
Bumble Bee pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $25 million criminal fine. In September, StarKist Co. was sentenced to pay a statutory maximum $100 million criminal fine. In addition to Bumble Bee and StarKist, four executives, including Lischewski, were charged in the investigation. The other three executives pleaded guilty and testified in Lischewski’s trial.
The sentence announced today is a result of the Department’s ongoing investigation into price fixing in the packaged-seafood industry, which is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Office and the FBI’s San Francisco Field Office. Anyone with information on price fixing, bid rigging, or other anticompetitive conduct related to the packaged-seafood industry should contact the Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Office at 415-934-5300, visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.html, or call the FBI tip line at 415-553-7400. Component(s): Antitrust Division
I did my stoop labor in the 60’s, from picking strawberries to commercial clam digging (not recommended) to planting trees for Weyerhauser then moved up to commercial fishing from California to Alaska - deckhand to owner/operator eventually.
Tuna, salmon, halibut - many thousands of each hauled in. Ended up spending 23 years working for the State of Alaska, retired in 2005 at age 53. A little luck and a lot of hard work.
It was probably at least seven ounces then. Looked at a can in WalMart yesterday - the size of a catfood tin (5 oz) and ran 85c.
I found an article from May 2017 where Bumble Bee was charged with price fixing. I’m curious is this is related to the same case, or something new.
Genova yellowfin tuna in olive oil is the tuna of choice in this house. A bit more costly but worth it.
Alaska huh...
I knew a dude that went to Alaska as a skinny little dude and came back a husky f....r
His first job was on a fishing boat and he started as a junior baiter and within a month he was a master baiter.
As to other ‘stoop labor’, always nice to be invited to a classmates house that lived on a farm, we went out for a few days and best I recall a GREAT meal was about all the pay was but the farm got cleaned up and the hay was brought in.
I will never forget the first time when we went out there to ‘get a tan’ and work off the summer fat while the ‘old timers’ were buttoning their collars and rolling down their sleeves.
I swear some 65 years later I am still ‘picking burrs’ and we thought the ‘old guys’ were crazy...
(I think the coach benefitted from OUR working the fields) <: <: <:
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.