StarKist to Plead Guilty in Tuna Price Conspiracy

Company faces fine of up to $100M
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 19, 2018 12:41 AM CDT
StarKist Pleads Guilty to Fixing Tuna Prices
The Starkist Samoa Co. tuna cannery in Pago Pago, American Samoa.   (AP Photo/Eugene Tanner, file)

StarKist Co. agreed to plead guilty to a felony price fixing charge as part of a broad collusion investigation of the canned tuna industry, the Department of Justice announced Thursday. The DOJ said StarKist faces up to a $100 million fine when it is sentenced. Prosecutors say the industry's top three companies conspired between 2010 and 2013 to keep prices artificially high, the AP reports. "We have cooperated with the DOJ during the course of its investigation and accept responsibility," said StarKist chief executive Andrew Choe. The scheme came to light when Chicken of the Sea's attempt to buy San Diego-based Bumble Bee failed in 2015, according to court records.

Chicken of the Sea executives then alerted federal investigators, who agreed to shield the company from prosecution in exchange for cooperation. Bumble Bee Foods last year pleaded guilty to the same charge and paid a $25 million fine, $111 million lower than prosecutors said it should have been. Prosecutors said they feared putting the financially struggling Bumble Bee out of business with a high fine. Two former executives of Bumble Bee and one from StarKist have also each pleaded guilty to price-fixing charges. "The conspiracy to fix prices on these household staples had direct effects on the pocketbooks of American consumers," said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim. (In 2015, StarKist gave consumers money—or tuna—to settle a class-action lawsuit.)

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