无力支付美国司法部提出的1亿美元罚款，金枪鱼食品商StarKist陷入财务困境
Canned tuna producer StarKist Co. said it can’t pay the Justice Department’s proposed $100 million criminal fine while also compensating customers suing over the antitrust conspiracy. PHOTO: LISA POOLE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The U.S. government’s campaign to punish StarKist Co. and other canned tuna producers for price fixing could be pushing the company’s finances to the breaking point.
StarKist can’t pay the Justice Department’s proposed $100 million criminal fine while also compensating customers suing over the antitrust conspiracy, StarKist lawyer Niall Lynch said in a hearing in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
StarKist pleaded guilty last year to fixing prices on canned tuna, along with its two main competitors, Chicken of the Sea and Bumble Bee Foods LLC. The federal investigation has embroiled the three companies in criminal proceedings and civil lawsuits, pressuring StarKist’s finances as prosecutors try to extract the largest possible fine allowable under the plea agreement.
StarKist’s guilty plea carries a penalty of up to $100 million. But the company has said it can only afford to pay $50 million and wants a judge to reduce the fine. The company declined to comment beyond the court filings.
Justice Department lawyers have said StarKist can sell its stake in packaging company Techpack Solutions Co. to pay the fine, which StarKist has denied it was able to do. StarKist and Techpack are both ultimately controlled by Korea’s Dongwon Group.
Even if StarKist could sell Techpack, the company said it couldn’t afford a $100 million fine, given its exposure in a pending class-action lawsuit over the tuna price fixing filed by consumers.
Alexander Gladstone and Andrew Scurria
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