Christopher Lischewski Archives

In a rare outcome, former Bumble Bee CEO will be sent to prison for price-fixing

June 17, 2020 — The former chief executive officer and president of Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, one of the world’s largest producers of canned tuna and other seafood products, has been sentenced to 40 months in jail for his leadership role in a three-year antitrust conspiracy to fix the prices of canned tuna. Christopher Lischewski’s sentence, which also includes a $100,000 criminal fine, comes after a San Francisco jury found him guilty in December of helping to orchestrate the scheme, which also involved the StarKist and Chicken of the Sea companies.

“The conduct was deliberate, it was planned, it was sustained, over a three-year period,” said Judge Edward M. Chen, according to reporting from Seafood Source. “This was not a rash act of having to commit a crime under distress, under episodic circumstances as we see sometimes, this was a contemplated and deliberate plan.”

Moreover, he said, the scheme targeted poor people.

Read the full story at The Counter

Bumble Bee’s Chris Lischewski convicted of fixing prices of canned tuna

December 4, 2019 — Christopher Lischewski, the former president and CEO of Bumble Bee Foods, was convicted on 3 December, 2019, of helping to orchestrate a price-fixing conspiracy between Bumble Bee, Chicken of the Sea, and StarKist, the so-called “Big Three” players in the U.S. canned tuna sector.

Lischewski was found guilty of one count of price-fixing by a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of USD 1 million (EUR 900,000). His sentencing has been set for 8 April, 2020. Lischewski’s conviction may also open him up as a target of civil lawsuits filed by parties who overpaid for canned tuna as a result of the price-fixing, according to Eric Snyder, chairman of the bankruptcy practice at Wilk Auslander, a New York City-based law firm.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Canned Tuna Maker Bumble Bee Preps for Bankruptcy Filing

November 18, 2019 — Bumble Bee Foods LLC is preparing to file for bankruptcy within days over mounting legal expenses stemming from its involvement in a conspiracy to fix prices on canned tuna, according to people familiar with the matter.

The San Diego-based company, owned by London-based private-equity firm Lion Capital, is expected to file a chapter 11 petition shortly and will put itself up for sale, the people said. Bumble Bee didn’t respond to a request for comment. Lion Capital, which bought the company in 2010 for $980 million, also didn’t immediately respond.

Bumble Bee pleaded guilty in 2017 and agreed to pay a $25 million fine for having formed a cartel with its two main competitors, Chicken of the Sea and StarKist Co.

The Justice Department subsequently indicted Bumble Bee Chief Executive Christopher Lischewski for his alleged role in the conspiracy. Mr. Lischewski, who pleaded not guilty, took a leave of absence from Bumble Bee last year and is on trial in California federal court.

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal

StarKist pleads guilty to role in canned tuna price-fixing

October 19, 2018 — StarKist pleaded guilty on Thursday, 18 October to fixing the prices of the canned tuna it sold in the United States between 2011 and 2013.

The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based company pleaded guilty to one felony count of price-fixing, a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco.

StarKist faces a fine of up to USD 100 million (EUR 87.1 million), a probationary term of between one and five years, and must pay restitution as a result of its plea. The exact amount of StarKist’s fine will be determined at a sentencing hearing and the plea agreement is subject to court approval. As part of its plea, StarKist has agreed to cooperate in the investigation.

StarKist became the second company to plead guilty in the case, following Bumble Bee’s guilty plea in May 2017. Bumble Bee faced a fine of up to USD 272.4 million (EUR 234 million), but eventually the Department of Justice agreed to a lower fine of USD 25 million (EUR 22.8 million) to protect the company from potential insolvency.

Former Bumble Bee executives Walter Scott Cameron and Ken Worsham and StarKist executive Stephen Hodge also each pleaded guilty in 2017 to conspiracy as part of the investigation, and former Bumble Bee CEO Christopher Lischewski was indicted in May 2017 on price-fixing charges but has pleaded not guilty. Lischewski’s case is ongoing.

In a press release, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division said the guilty plea brings to a close investigation into the industry pricing practices, which it initiated in 2015. The investigation began after a failed bid by Thai Union, which owns U.S. canned tuna firm Chicken of the Sea, to buy Bumble Bee in 2015. In September 2017, Thai Union acknowledged Chicken of the Sea was the whistleblower in the case and received conditional leniency as a result.

The investigation was conducted by the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division – specifically by its San Francisco office – and by the FBI’s San Francisco field office. Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett, who helped lead the investigation, and Makan Delrahim, the assistant attorney general leading the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, issued statements after StarKist’s plea was entered.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Bumble Bee CEO indicted on federal price-fixing charges

May 17, 2018 — The CEO of Bumble Bee Foods faces up to 10 years in prison on charges he conspired to illegally set prices on canned tuna in the United States.

A federal grand jury on Wednesday 16 May indicted Christopher Lischewski on a single count of price fixing. He is scheduled to be arraigned on 29 May in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, California.

According to the indictment, Lischewski “knowingly joined and participated” in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition by fixing prices on packaged seafood sold in America. He and other unnamed co-conspirators held meetings and exchanged information on not just pricing data but sales, supply, demand, and production.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

2018 will be good year for clam chowder, Bumble Bee, thanks to NOAA moves

January 9, 2018 — The makers and fans of New England clam chowder, including Bumble Bee Seafood, can feel confident that the kind of mollusk most often used to make the soup — ocean quahogs — will be in ample supply in 2018 thanks to two moves made recently by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Ocean conservationists, however, are not breaking out their party hats and noisemakers.

When John Bullard, NOAA’s northeast regional administrator, informed the New England Fishery Management Council last week that the agency will authorize the majority of NEFMC’s Omnibus Essential Fish Habitat Amendment 2 (OA2), many focused on the positive ramifications for scallop harvesters.

But NOAA’s approval of the council’s new plan for balancing the conservation of different sea life with the concerns of local fishermen also came with good news for harvesters of ocean quahogs and surf clams. Bullard informed NEFMC that his agency also agrees with its suggestion to provide a one-year exemption for clam harvesters to prohibitions against the controversial use of hydraulic dredging gear in the Great South Channel habitat management area (HMA), a deep-water passage that cuts between Nantucket and Georges Bank.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News