Bumble Bee To Plead Guilty, Pay $25M Fine For Tuna Price-Fixing

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – San Diego-based Bumble Bee Foods agreed to plead guilty and pay a $25 million fine for its role in a price-fixing conspiracy of canned and pouch tuna fish sold nationwide, the Department of Justice said today.

Bumble Bee and its co-conspirators agreed to fix prices of shelf-stable tuna fish from the first quarter of 2011 through the fourth quarter of 2013, according to the one-count felony charge filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, officials said.

In addition to agreeing to plead guilty, Bumble Bee will pay a $25 million criminal fine, which will increase to a maximum criminal fine of $81.5 million, payable by a related entity, in the event of a sale of Bumble Bee subject to certain terms and conditions, the department said.

Bumble Bee also agreed to cooperate with the Antitrust Division’s ongoing investigation into the packaged seafood industry, and the plea agreement is subject to court approval, officials said.

“Today’s charge is the third to be filed – and the first to be filed against a corporate defendant – in the Antitrust Division’s ongoing investigation into price fixing among some of the largest suppliers of packaged seafood,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Andrew Finch of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The division, along with our law enforcement colleagues, will continue to hold these companies and their executives accountable for conduct that targeted a staple in American households.”

“We echo the Department of Justice Antitrust Division's sentiment,” said Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett of the FBI’s San Francisco Division. “Companies small and large hold a great deal of the American peoples’ trust and this type of unfair, greedy behavior will not be tolerated.”

Today’s charge stems from an ongoing federal probe into the packaged seafood industry being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Office and the FBI’s San Francisco Field Office, justice officials said.

Anyone with information on price fixing, bid rigging or other anti-competitive conduct related to the packaged seafood industry can contact the Antitrust Division’s Citizen Complaint Center at (888) 647-3258 or call the FBI tip line at (415) 553-7400.

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