Practice Areas
Carrier Exec Gets 18 Month Prison Term, $20,000 Fine for Price Fixing
According to the Department of Justice, an executive of a Japan-based vessel carrier has been sentenced to serve an 18-month prison term and pay a $20,000 criminal fine for his 14-year involvement in a conspiracy to fix prices, allocate customers and rig bids of international ocean shipping services for roll-on, roll-off cargo to and from the United States and elsewhere. Ro-ro cargo is non-containerized cargo that can be both rolled onto and off of an ocean-going vessel, such as new and used cars and trucks and construction and agricultural equipment.
The DOJ notes that this is the first sentence to be imposed against an individual in the department’s ongoing antitrust investigation into price fixing, bid rigging and other anticompetitive conduct in the international ro-ro ocean shipping industry. Previously in this investigation, three corporations have agreed to plead guilty and pay criminal fines totaling more than $136 million.
