The Attorney General for the State of Washington, Bob Ferguson, has filed a civil lawsuit against canned tuna manufacturer StarKist & Co. and the former CEO of Bumble Bee Foods, Christopher Lischewski.
The case was filed over “a price-fixing conspiracy that drove up the cost of packaged tuna for more than a decade, costing Washingtonians at least $6 million”.
The lawsuit makes Washington the first state to bring a case over this conspiracy…even as the Department of Justice seeks an 8 to 10 year prison term and a $1 million fine for Lischeswski.
Ferguson’s charges, filed in King County Superior Court, assert StarKist, its parent company Dongwon Enterprises and the former Bumble Bee Foods CEO engaged in a price fixing conspiracy from 2004 through 2015 to drive up the cost of packaged tuna, violating Washington’s Consumer Protection Act.
As a result, Washington residents paid millions more than they should have.
The lawsuit asks the court to order the defendants to pay restitution to Washington consumers as well as the costs and fees of bringing the case.
The conspiracy came to light when federal officials were reviewing the proposed purchase of Bumble Bee by Chicken of the Sea International’s parent company Thai Union for $1.5 billion.
Chicken of the Sea executives came forward seeking whistleblower protections then cooperated with federal investigators to show the full scope of the collusion between the three canned tuna giants.
Bumble Bee susbsequently filed for bankruptcy protection.
According to the lawsuit, Lischeswki and executives at StarKist and Chicken of the Sea routinely communicated about ways to keep the price of tuna artificially high for consumers in order to reap more profits.
They called each other, texted, used private emails to avoid detection and had frequent face to face meetings at pre arranged locations such as hotels and restaurants to exchange internal company policies and data.
After the federal trial, a jury found Lischewski guilty within 30 minutes and a federal judge referred to the evidence in the trial as legion.
Source: Undercurrent News
