Bumble Bee Foods LLC has hired turnaround firm AlixPartners LLP as the seafood purveyor seeks to recover after pleading guilty to fixing prices on canned tuna, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bumble Bee is in talks with lenders after defaulting on its loan. The lenders have agreed to a forbearance period as restructuring talks continue. San Diego-based Bumble Bee is owned by London-based private-equity firm Lion Capital. The company has been embroiled in legal trouble related to a price-fixing case brought by the Justice Department, as well as other matters. Bumble Bee agreed to plead guilty in 2017 for participating in a conspiracy with its two main competitors, Chicken of the Sea and StarKist Co., to fix prices of tuna, and also agreed to pay a $25 million fine. The Justice Department subsequently indicted Bumble Bee’s chief executive Christopher Lischewski for his alleged role in the conspiracy. Lischewski, who pleaded not guilty, took a leave of absence from Bumble Bee last year.
