Antitrust Lawyer Blog

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…

On December 11, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) required The PNC Financial Services Group (“PNC”) to sell 61 of National City Corporation’s (“National City”) branches totaling approximately $4.1 billion in deposits for PNC’s acquisition of National City to proceed.Fifty of the branches ($3.35 billion in deposits) are located in Allegheny County (PA), six ($249…

On December 11, 2008, Cynthia K. Ayer, Bambarg County (South Carolina) School District’s former technology coordinator, pled guilty for her role in a conspiracy to defraud the Federal Communication Commission’s E-Rate Program and agreed to serve two years in jail and pay a criminal fine of $468,496.The Telecommunication Act of 1996 authorized the E-Rate Program…

On December 10, 2008, Misao Hioki, general manager of International Engineered Products, pled guilty to his role in a conspiracy to rig bids, fix prices and allocate market shares of marine hose in the United States. He also pled guilty for his role in another conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) by…

On December 10, 2008, Randall Lee Rahal, the owner and president of Intramark USA Inc., a New Jersey wholesaler of food ingredients, was charged for his role in conspiracies involving racketeering, price fixing, bid rigging and contract allocation, and with money laundering, in the processed tomato products industry. Mr. Rahal agreed to forfeit $600,000 as…

On December 3, 2008, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) required Republic Services Inc. (“Republic”) and Allied Waste Industries Inc. (“Allied”) to divest to divest 87 commercial waste collection routes, nine landfills and 10 transfer stations for Republic’s $4.5 billion acquisition of Allied to proceed. The transaction as originally proposed would result in reduced competition and…

On December 2, 2008, Peter Whittle, David Brammar and Bryan Allison all received reductions in their sentences to 3 months, 2 years, and 20 months respectively from the UK Court of Appeal.On June 11, 2008, the three men pled guilty for running a cartel in UK’s first criminal prosecution for bid rigging. Mr. Allison and…