Former Bumble Bee Foods LLC Chief Executive Officer Chris Lischewski was convicted in a price-fixing conspiracy, capping a years-long U.S. investigation that shook the packaged seafood industry and pushed Bumble Bee into bankruptcy last month, Bloomberg News reported. Lischewski was found guilty yesterday by a federal jury in San Francisco after just a few hours of deliberations in what experts say is likely the final piece of the Justice Department probe. Prosecutors alleged that he conspired with colleagues and executives at rival companies on a “peace proposal” in order to boost prices and meet earnings targets set by Bumble Bee’s 2010 sale to Lion Capital. The former CEO faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $1 million, according to the indictment. San Diego-based Bumble Bee, owner of the largest North American brand of packaged seafood, pleaded guilty in 2017 to a felony charge of conspiring with competitors Starkist Co. and Chicken of the Sea Inc. to fix and raise prices of canned tuna in the U.S. from 2011 through at least late 2013. The company’s guilty plea carried a criminal fine of $25 million, a reduced figure that the Justice Department agreed to after Bumble Bee argued that a stiffer penalty would tip it into bankruptcy. Subsequent lawsuits filed against Bumble Bee by its customers, mostly major U.S. grocers, added to the financial pressure, forcing the tuna company to file for chapter 11 protection from creditors on Nov. 21.
