FBI Smells Something Fishy in the Tuna Market

The San Francisco offices of the U.S. Attorney and FBI have cast a wide net around the canned tuna market.  Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division is not loving “Yum yum Bumblebee, Bumblebee tuna.”  His department has already secured guilty pleas against Bumble Bee, Chicken of the Sea and Star Kist (sorry Charlie) for conspiring to fix canned tuna prices in violation of U.S. antitrust laws.  However, the prosecutions have not stopped there as Delrahim seeks other fish to fry, such as Christopher Lischewski, who served as CEO of Bumble Bee Foods for nearly two decades before he was indicted last year. If convicted, Lischewski could face 10 years in prison and a $10 million fine.  Lischewski, seeking to get off the hook, pled not guilty to the charges but is now in a fine kettle of fish at his trial.  Steve Hodge, StarKist's former senior vice president of sales and trade marketing, who has already pled guilty to price fixing, testified this week at Lischewski’s trial.  Lischewski needed that as much as a fish needs a bicycle.   Hodge admitted under oath that he and Lischewski conspired along with senior executives at Chicken of the Sea to fix tuna prices.  As the trial continues, Lischewski will have to hope that the jury sees Hodge’s admission as a red herring, and accepts the defense’s fish story . . . hook, line and sinker.