Pilgrim’s Pride has agreed to pay a fine of $110.5 million to settle federal price-fixing charges that had resulted in the indictment of two former CEOs.
The settlement, announced by the company Oct. 14, was in connection with a federal antitrust probe into pricing practices across the poultry industry. The U.S. Justice Department alleged that executives from Pilgrim’s Pride, majority-owned by JBS SA, improperly communicated with purported competitors to set prices and other terms for trade customers. The investigation ensnared current and former executives of Koch Foods, Perdue Farms, Tyson Foods, Claxton Poultry Farms and other companies.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Pilgrim’s Pride has been cooperating with the federal probe and has received a fine smaller than it would otherwise have paid.
The case resulted in the indictment of two former Pilgrim’s Pride CEOs: Jayson Penn, who was fired in September, and Bill Lovette, who retired last March.
The federal probe seeks to cover price-fixing from 2012 to early 2019 that allegedly victimized some of the poultry processors’ biggest retail and foodservice customers, including Walmart, Kroger, Chick-Fil-A and KFC. Walmart and others have filed civil lawsuits against Pilgrim’s Pride and other poultry processors alleging price fixing.
