Former Bumble Bee CEO is sentenced in tuna price-fixing scheme

According to The New York Times, Christopher Lischewski, former president and CEO of Bumble Bee Foods, has been sentenced to 40 months in jail and a $100,000 fine for his role in a three-year conspiracy to fix prices of canned tuna. The scheme affected over $600 million worth of canned tuna sales, according to prosecutors.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has stated that Lischewski was the leader of the scheme that involved three other executives who pleaded guilty and testified against Lischewski.

“The sentence imposed today will serve as a significant deterrent in the C-suite and the boardroom,” said Makan Delrahim, the assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, in a statement. “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.”

In 2017, Bumble Bee pleaded guilty to its role in the scheme and was sentenced to pay a $25 million fine. In September, StarKist, another canned-tuna company that was involved in the conspiracy, was sentenced to pay a $100 million fine, according to prosecutors.

The authorities became aware of the conspiracy in 2015 when Thai Union Frozen Products in Bangkok unsuccessfully attempted to buy Bumble Bee Foods, which was struggling financially. Thai Union had already purchased Chicken of the Sea and was hoping that merging with Bumble Bee would make it the market leader in the United States.

Before the merger happened, Olean Wholesale Grocery Cooperative, a food wholesaler in New York, noticed that even though prices for raw tuna had dropped, canned tuna prices did not. The wholesaler filed a lawsuit in California. Other grocers, restaurants, and retailers—including Walmart, Target, and Kroger—filed lawsuits, and the merger fell apart.