Antitrust Lawyer Blog

On January 15, 2009, Ronald K. Johnston, a former employee of Home Depot, pled guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and for two counts of filing false tax returns in an attempt to defraud Home Depot.The conspiracy took place between 2005 and 2007. Specifically, Mr. Johnston received kickbacks from foreign suppliers seeking to do…

On January 14, 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) filed a suit to block the proposed $540 million assets and interest acquisition of Pavestone Co. (“Pavestone”) by rival Oldcastle Architectural, Inc. (“Oldcastle”) because it would reduce competition in the manufacture and sale of drycast concrete hardscapes.Both companies manufacture and sell drycast concrete hardscape products, which…

On January 14, 2009, AT&T Inc. (“AT&T”) entered into a civil settlement worth $2 million with the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) to settle charges that AT&T was in contempt of a March 2008 consent decree AT&T entered into during its acquisition of Dobson Communications Corporation (“Dobson”).The consent decreed required AT&T to divest three mobile wireless…

On December 29, 2008, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) required a divestiture to resolve antitrust concerns with King Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s (“King”) $1.6 billion acquisition of Alpharma, Inc. (“Alpharma”). To remedy the situation, the FTC is requiring King to divest Alpharma’s brand Kadian, an oral long-acting opioid (“LAO”) analgesic drug, to Actavis, one of the world’s…

On December 22, 2008, Theresa J. Baker, a major in the U.S. Army Reserve, pled guilty for her role in two conspiracies to commit bribery involving U.S. Department of Defense (“DOD”) contracts at Camp Victory, Iraq.As a part of the same investigation, on June 3, 2008, Raman International Inc. (“Raman”), a defense contractor, pled guilty…

On December 19, 2008, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd.’s settled charges that its proposed $8.9 billion acquisition of rival generic drug maker Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. would be anticompetitive. The consent order required Teva and Barr to sell assets in 29 relevant markets, including generic drugs commonly used to treat acid reflux disease, various types of cancer,…

On December 18, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsemi Corporation (“Microsemi”) alleging that Microsemi’s acquisition of Semicoa Inc.’s (“Semicoa”) assets has reduced or eliminated competition for the development, manufacture, sale of certain semiconductor devices used by the U.S. military and space programs, resulting in the increase in the price…

On December 18, 2008, Zul Tejpar, a former employee at Bennett Environmental Industries (“BEI”), a Canadian soil treatment company, pled guilty for defrauding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) at the EPA-designated Superfund site, Federal Creosote in Manville, NJ and agreed to pay a criminal fine of $1 million and help in the ongoing investigation.The…

On December 15, 2008, Yong Zhu, the president of Chino, an import-export company that provides Chinese supplies to U.S. companies, pled guilty for his role in a conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.Mr. Zhu allegedly paid an employee of a manufacturing company that did business with Chino as sum of $10,000. In return Mr.…

On December 15, 2008, ESL Partners (“ESL”) of Greenwich, Conn., and ZAM Holdings (“ZAM”) of New York City, two investment funds with holdings in numerous companies, will pay $525,000 and $275,000, respectively, in civil penalties for violating antitrust pre-merger notification requirements under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act of 1976 (“HSR Act”). According to the complaint, after its…